venir

Forms

venir (first-person singular present vengo, first-person singular preterite vine, past participle venido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish venir, inherited from Latin venīre (“to come”).^[2][3][4][1] It has been in use at all periods and survives in every Romance language.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese vir, Galician vir, Catalan vindre and venir, French venir, Italian venire and Romanian veni.^[5][6] Asturian has vinir beside the form with ⟨e⟩.^[2][5]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *gʷn-je/o- (“to come”).^[7] De Vaan explains that its /n/ arose by sound change from a Proto-Indo-European /m/ in these forms and then spread to the other derivatives of the root.^[7] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gʷm̥yéti, from *gʷem- (“to come, step”), the root of Ancient Greek βαίνω (baínō, “to go”), Sanskrit गच्छति (gácchati, “goes”) and Old English cuman, the ancestor of the English verb come.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy): Martín Antolínez “does not come to the bridge” but crosses by the water, Non viene a la puent, ca por el agua á passado.^[8][2] In the poem the verb means walking towards the speaker and arriving where the speaker is, as in the greeting ¿Venides, Martin Antolinez?, and in narrative also moving towards the person spoken of.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the difference between ire and venire was one of aspect: venire was movement towards a definite place, ire movement in general; since speakers talk most of movement towards themselves, the Romance languages tied venire to that direction.^[2] Italian, French, Catalan and English come can still be used of movement towards the person addressed, but modern Castilian restricts venir to movement towards the speaker.^[2] The restriction is recent: Lope still wrote ¿No vienes, conde? —Ya vengo, and the Middle Ages and the Golden Age used venir for movement to any given place, as in Quevedo and Cervantes.^[2] In the Ecuadorian provinces of Cañar and Azuay ¿yo vendré? is said when knocking at a door.^[2]

The reflexive venirse is a typical Hispanism, already in Berceo;^[2] la casa se viene abajo “the house is falling down” is in Calderón.^[2] The Autoridades of 1739 noted the irregular forms with g (vengo, venga), with ie (viene) and with i (vine).^[10] Covarrubias recorded venir a las manos “to come to blows”.^[11] Figurative senses multiplied: to fit or suit (me viene bien), to follow in time (el mes que viene), to come from or descend from.^[4][1] In much of Latin America the pronominal venirse also means to reach orgasm.^[12][1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, the first record.^[3][8]
• 1212 – the derivative venidero “coming, future”.^[3][2]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo has the noun venida and the reflexive venirse.^[3][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin venio and advenio.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records venir a las manos “to fight”.^[11]
• 1739 – the Autoridades defines it as moving from there to here.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology Latin venire.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To come: to move towards, or arrive at, the place where the speaker is: ¿Vienes a cenar el sábado?^[4][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a thing: to move from there to here.^[4]
3. (intransitive) To fit or suit: Esta chaqueta me viene grande.^[4][1]
4. (intransitive) To come round to an agreement, to give in.^[4]
5. (intransitive) To return to a subject after a digression.^[4]
6. (intransitive) Of a time or event: to draw near or arrive;^[4][1] el año que viene “next year”.^[4][1]
7. (intransitive) To come from, originate in, descend from: Esa costumbre viene de sus abuelos.^[4][1]
8. (intransitive) Of a desire or feeling: to arise: De repente le vinieron ganas de llorar.^[4][1]
9. (intransitive) To appear or be included in a book or newspaper.^[4]
10. (with a gerund) To have been doing something for some time: Viene diciéndolo desde hace meses.^[1]
11. (pronominal, Latin America, vulgar) To reach orgasm.^[12][1]

Word family

• venida
• venidero
• porvenir
• bienvenido
• sobrevenir

Related words

• advenir
• avenir
• contravenir
• convenir
• desavenir
• devenir
• prevenir
• provenir
• intervenir
• ventura
• aventura
• Latin veniō
• Portuguese vir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 770
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. venir
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7077
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9200
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. venir
9. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. venir
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 446
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1378
12. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. venir
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 429
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1078