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dejar

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Spanish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old Spanish dexar, from Early Old Spanish lexar, from Latin laxāre, whence also laxar (a borrowed doublet). Also compare Portuguese and Galician deixar, Asturian dexar, Aragonese deixar, Catalan deixar, Occitan daissar, laissar, Sicilian dassari and both French laisser and délaisser.

Early Old Spanish generally has l-, forms appearing with d- towards 1200. The change of the initial l- to d- in many (especially Iberian) Romance languages has been explained in various ways: most likely, it is due to the influence of the preposition de, often used in constructions with this verb, or from an influence of, or contraction of, Late Latin dēlaxāre (also attested in Old Spanish as delexar), due to rapid pronunciation (as is common in quasi-auxiliary verbs). Less likely explanations include influence from the verb dar (to give), or derivation from Latin dēsinere, the latter proving difficult on phonetic grounds.[1] Compare English lease (sense 5), lax, and laxative.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /deˈxaɾ/ [d̪eˈxaɾ]
  • Audio (Mexico):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɾ
  • Syllabification: de‧jar

Verb

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dejar (first-person singular present dejo, first-person singular preterite dejé, past participle dejado)

  1. (transitive) to leave (to place)
    Dejé la cerveza arriba.
    I left the beer upstairs.
    Deja las llaves sobre la mesa.
    Leave the keys on the table.
  2. (transitive) to leave, to keep (to allow to continue)
    Me gusta dejar la luz encendida.
    I like to keep/leave the light on.
    Supongo que podríamos dejar el restaurante abierto un poco más.
    I suppose we could keep the restaurant open a little bit longer.
  3. (transitive) to leave (to cause, result in)
    Su respuesta nos dejó convencidos.
    His answer left us convinced.
    Nos dejaste sorprendidos.
    You surprised us.
  4. (transitive) to let, allow
    Synonym: permitir
    Antonym: prohibir
    Deja que se explique.
    Let him/her/it explain himself/herself/itself.
    Después de asear el área afectada, déjela secar.
    After you clean the affected area, allow it to dry.
    El ruido no me deja dormir.
    The noise is keeping me awake.
    No dejes que el monstruo se acerque a ti.
    Don't let the monster get near you.
    No dejaré que hagas eso.
    I won't let you do that.
  5. (transitive) to let go, put down (to release from one's grasp)
    Synonym: soltar
  6. (transitive) to drop off
    Ayer dejé un paquete muy importante.
    Yesterday I dropped off a very important package.
  7. (transitive) to leave, to abandon, to dump
    Synonym: abandonar
    Su madre la dejó cuando tenía tres años.
    Her mother left her when she was three.
    La invitó a una cita muy agradable, y de repente de la nada, él la dejó.
    He took her on a really nice date, and then suddenly out of nowhere, he dumped her.
  8. (transitive) to give up, to lay off, to kick (colloquial)
    Van a dejar la bebida.
    They're going to lay off drinking.
    Estoy pensando en dejar el chocolate para la Cuaresma.
    I am thinking of giving up chocolate for Lent.
    Espero dejar ese hábito terrible para siempre.
    I hope to kick that terrible habit for good.
  9. (transitive) to set, to put, to make (in certain phrases)
    Quería dejar las cosas claras.
    I wanted to set the record straight.
    Usted tiene que dejar atrás el pasado.
    You've got to put the past behind you.
    El político emergente estaba decidido a dejar su huella.
    The emerging politician was determined to make his mark.
  10. (Spain, transitive, colloquial) to cut out (stop)
  11. (intransitive) to leave off
  12. (intransitive, auxiliary) to cease, stop [with de (+ infinitive) ‘doing something’]
    Synonyms: parar, cesar, detener
    Hace dos años dejaron de fumar.
    Two years ago they stopped smoking.
    Mi pareja no deja de sorprenderme.
    My partner never ceases to amaze me.
    Deja de hacer ruido.
    Stop making noise.
    El perro deja de roer el hueso.
    The dog stops gnawing on the bone.
    Deja de comer mi comida.
    Stop eating my food.
  13. (reflexive) to be left [with a ‘to someone’]
  14. (reflexive) to let (oneself), to let oneself go (to cease to care about one's appearance)
  15. (reflexive, usually in the imperative, usually used with behavior nouns) to stop with something

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Coromines, Joan; Pascual, José Antonio (1983–1991), “dejar”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic etymological dictionary]‎[1] (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos

Further reading

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