padecer

Padecer is a verb used in Spanish and Portuguese to mean to suffer, endure, or experience pain, illness, or misfortune. In both languages it often denotes a prolonged or burdensome state rather than a single act, and it tends to be more formal or literary than the more common synonyms sufrir (Spanish) or sofrer (Portuguese).

Etymology: The verb derives from Latin patēre or pati, meaning to endure or suffer. It entered the Iberian Romance languages through medieval Latin forms and developed in parallel in Spanish and Portuguese, retaining the core sense of affliction and endurance.

Usage: Padecer is typically followed by de to indicate the source of suffering, as in padecer de una enfermedad (to suffer from a disease) or padecer de hambre (to suffer from hunger). It can describe long-term conditions, misfortune, or hardship. In everyday speech, sufrir or sofrer is more common, while padecer appears more often in formal, literary, or historical contexts.

Conjugation: In Spanish, padecer is irregular in the present tense, with forms such as padezco, padeces, padece, padecemos, padecéis, padecen. In Portuguese, the present indicative forms are padeço, padeces, padece, padecemos, padeceis, padecem, with the 1st-person singular padeço being a notable form.

See also: Suffering, Illness, Hardship.