vibrar

Forms

vibrar (first-person singular present vibro, first-person singular preterite vibré, past participle vibrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vibrō (“to brandish, shake; to quiver”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas dates it from 1599, with a single earlier use in 1438; the CDH has it in Enrique de Villena's translation of the Eneida, of 1427–1428.^[3][2][5] The same learned verb is Portuguese vibrar, French vibrer and Italian vibrare.^[6][1] Through a variant Vulgar Latin *virō, with the /b/ lost by dissimilation, the Latin verb also gave virar, virer and virar.^[6]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Italic *wib-ro- (“trembling”) and Proto-Indo-European *uip/b-ro-, with cognates such as Old Norse veifa (“to swing”);^[7][1] Wiktionary gives the root as *weyp- (“to oscillate, swing”) or *weyb-, since both appear in the daughter languages.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Villena's translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442) the serpents come vibrando la lengua “flicking their tongues”.^[5] Corominas's regular record begins in 1599 with the Guzmán de Alfarache.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds examples in several 17th-century writers, among them Góngora, and calls the word common today among educated speakers.^[2] The 1739 Autoridades gave three senses: to brandish a pike, lance or sword, to hurl something with force, and in statics, to swing to and fro about a point of rest.^[8] Terreros used it for shooting an arrow and, figuratively, of the sun darting its rays.^[9]

The Academy added the trembling sound of the voice in 1843, and in 1869 the physical sense of a body oscillating when displaced from equilibrium.^[10][11] The DLE now also gives the figurative sense “to be moved, thrilled by something”.^[4][12] Phonetics uses it of a rolled r.^[1]

Timeline

• 1427–1428 – Villena's translation of the Aeneid (in a 1442 copy) has vibrando la lengua.^[5]
• 1599 – the Guzmán de Alfarache, the start of regular use.^[2][3]
• 1630 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[13]
• 1739 – the Autoridades records the senses “to brandish”, “to hurl” and “to swing”;^[8][3] vibración is first recorded.^[8][3]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the trembling of the voice.^[10]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense of physics.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To give a sword or another long, thin, elastic object a quivering motion; to brandish.^[4][1][14]
2. Of the voice or something immaterial: to sound tremulous (trémulo).^[4][12]
3. (transitive) To hurl something with force, making it quiver.^[4][1]
4. (intransitive, mechanics) Of an elastic body: to vibrate, oscillate (oscilar) about its position of equilibrium: La cuerda del violín vibra al pulsarla.^[4][14]
5. (intransitive) To be moved or thrilled by something: El público vibraba con cada canción.^[4][12]
6. (phonetics) To roll the letter r.^[1]

Word family

• vibración
• vibrante
• vibrátil
• vibratorio
• vibrión

Related words

• vibrador
• virar
• Latin vibrō
• French vibrer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 803
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vibrar
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vibrar
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. vibrar
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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 c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 475
9. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 791
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 741
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 791
12. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vibrar
13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. vibrar
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vibrar