visitar

Forms

visitar (first-person singular present visito, first-person singular preterite visité, past participle visitado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote uisitar and visitar;^[2][3][4] vesyto and vesitar also occur, and Corominas cites the popular form besitar from the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vīsitō (“to see often, go to see”), a learned word.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin verb is a frequentative from Latin vīsō (“to look at, go to see”) + -itō, and the base verb is in turn formed from the root of videō (“to see”).^[1][8][9] Wiktionary traces that verb to Proto-Italic *weidsō, an s-desiderative of Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”).^[1] The Spanish verb thus belongs to the family of ver.^[4][7]

The same Latin word was borrowed as French visiter, whose inherited form Old French visder did not survive.^[10][1] The REW lists other popular outcomes in Old Venetian and Romansh.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in the biblical translation La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where God says he will punish the people's sins: visitaré sobre ellos sos pecados.^[12] Corominas and the BDELC date the verb to Berceo (1220–1250), who uses it for “to go and see”, as in en visitar enfermos non era embargado “he was not slow to visit the sick”, and also for “to give the last rites”.^[4][5][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the courtesy visit, the visit to a sacred place, the inspection of churches by a prelate, and God's sending of comfort or punishment to people.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 distinguishes going to see someone as a mark of honour, visiting holy places as a pilgrim, and the inspection carried out by judges and prelates, whose agent is the visitador; he also records visitar comadres, going from house to house to pass the time.^[14]

Autoridades gives the social visit, the devotional visit and the judicial inspection with quotations from Lope and Mariana.^[15] Terreros adds the doctor's visit and the sense of travellers who visit foreign lands.^[16] The 19th-century Academy editions add the inspection of goods at customs and of prisons.^[17][18] The DLE now puts “to go to a place in order to get to know it” second and includes visiting a web page.^[6]

In Argentina it was also used intransitively for “to frequent”.^[4] In Honduras visitar can mean “to rob”.^[19] In Andalusia visitar sagrarios is a joking phrase for going from tavern to tavern.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has visitaré in a biblical sense.^[12]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses it for visiting the sick.^[5][12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón has uisito, the first hit with no later copy.^[12]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for visiting the sick.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin viso and inviso;^[21][5] visitador is first recorded.^[21][5]
• 1526 – first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the noun visita and the phrase visitar comadres.^[14][5]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the social, devotional and judicial senses.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin visitare.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To visit, go to see someone where they are: Cada domingo visitamos a los abuelos.^[6][1]
2. To go to a place, especially in order to get to know it: Este verano quieren visitar Roma.^[6][7]
3. To go to a church or shrine out of devotion.^[6]
4. Of an authority: to inspect the working of a body under its jurisdiction.^[6]
5. Of a doctor: to go to a patient's home to attend them;^[6][22][7] (Spain) to see patients in a surgery.^[6][22][7]
6. To go to a web page.^[6]
7. To find out about something in person.^[6]
8. (religion) Of God: to send someone special consolation.^[6]
9. (reflexive) Of a prisoner: to attend the judge's visit to make a request.^[6][22]
10. (Honduras) To rob.^[19]

Word family

• visita
• visitador
• visitante
• visitación

Related words

• ver
• visión
• Latin vīsitō
• French visiter

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. visitar
3. ^ a b c 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. vejitar
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 713
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ver
6. ^ 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. visitar
7. ^ a b c d e Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. visitar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. visitar
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. visiter
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9377
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. visitar
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. visitar
14. ^ 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. 1393
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 500
16. ^ 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, 811
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 797
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1094
19. ^ 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. visitar
20. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 651
21. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 431
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. visitar