menguar

From Latin minuō (“to diminish”), possibly via a Vulgar Latin form *minificō.

menguar (first-person singular indicative present menguo, past participle menguáu)

1. to shrink, drop, wane

• mengua

• amenorgar
• reducir

According to Coromines and Pascual, from Latin minuāre representing archaic Romance, found in glosses as old as the 8th century, and in a work of Gregory of Tours (6th century), ultimately from Latin minuō, minuere (“to diminish something”). Cognate with Portuguese minguar, Catalan minvar, and the uncommon Old Italian menovare.

The Latin spelling may possibly be a late form of *minuficāre (not mentioned by Coromines and Pascual), having undergone the sound changes [-fek-] > [-βeɡ-] > (with syncope) [-wɡ-] > (with metathesis) [-ɡw-], a sound change also found in Spanish atestiguar, amortiguar, averiguar, santiguar, all with Latin -ificāre.

• IPA^(key): /menˈɡwaɾ/ [mẽŋˈɡwaɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: men‧guar

menguar (first-person singular present menguo, first-person singular preterite mengüé, past participle menguado)

1. (intransitive) to wane
2. (intransitive) to decrease, diminish

   Synonym: disminuir

• Joan Coromines; José A. Pascual (1985), “menguar”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volume IV (Me–Re), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 38
• “menguar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014