halagar

Inherited from Old Spanish falagar. Further etymologies have been of much contention. The etymologies mentioned by various editions of the DRAE may serve as illustration:

• in 1884, from Arabic حَلَاوَة (ḥalāwa, “sweetness”)
• in 1899, from Latin flagitāre (“to solicit”)
• in 1956, from Arabic خَلَقَ (ḵalaqa, “to create; make up (lies); make smooth, polish; perfume”),[1] which Coromines and Pascual support while mentioning a related خَالَقَ (ḵālaqa, “to treat someone kindly”)[2]
• in 2001, from Andalusian Arabic خَلَاق (ḵalāq, “thief pigeon”).

See Galician afagar, Asturian falagar, Aragonese falaguera (“impertinent extravagant desire, passion”), Catalan afalagar (“to stroke, flatter”), Catalan falaguera f sg (“flattering, appeasing, satisfying; light, quick; charm”, adj. hence also a noun), Basque balakatu (“to flatter”).

• IPA^(key): /alaˈɡaɾ/ [a.laˈɣ̞aɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: ha‧la‧gar

halagar (first-person singular present halago, first-person singular preterite halagué, past participle halagado)

1. (transitive) to make much of, to flatter, to entice

   Synonym: adular

2. (transitive) to praise, to make much of

   Synonym: alabar

3. (transitive) to caress, to please, to gratify, to soothe, to appease, to cocker

   Synonyms: acariciar, agradar, calmar, aliviar

• “halagar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014