cazar (Spanish)

Where does "cazar" come from?

The Spanish verb 'cazar', meaning 'to hunt' or 'to catch', is inherited from Old Spanish 'caçar'[1]. This form traces back to Vulgar Latin '*captiāre', which derived from the Latin word 'captus'[1]. Ultimately, these roots connect to deeper ancestral forms meaning seized or held.

Open questions

• The ultimate Proto-Indo-European root for these terms is possibly a non-Indo-European loanword or sound-symbolic creation. [4]

Full etymology tree

• cazar (Spanish), 'to hunt'
  • inherited caçar (Old Spanish)
    • inherited *captiare (Latin), 'inflection of captiō:'
      • derived captus (Latin), 'captured, having been captured, seized, having been seized, taken, having been taken'
        • inherited *kaptos (Proto-Italic)
          • inherited *kaptós (Proto-Indo-European), 'seized, held'
            • derived *kapyéti (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be grasping'
              • derived *kap- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to seize, to grab'

Ancestors

• captus (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• chase (English)
• caçar (Portuguese)
• cachar (Spanish)

Descendants and derived words

• cazzare (Italian)
• cacería (Spanish)
• caza (Spanish)
• caza (Spanish)
• cazaautógrafos (Spanish)
• cazabobos (Spanish)
• cazacabezas (Spanish)
• cazacarros (Spanish)
• cazadero (Spanish)
• cazador (Spanish)
• cazador (Spanish)
• cazafortunas (Spanish)

Sources

1. cazar (Spanish) - Wiktionary
2. captus (Latin) - Wiktionary
3. kaptós (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
4. kap- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris