adjectiveverb

prestado

borrow

Definition & meaning

Prestado means borrowed or lent, depending on the point of view:

Borrowed: something received temporarily from someone else. Un libro prestado means “a borrowed book.”
Lent: something given temporarily to someone else. He prestado mi libro means “I’ve lent my book.”
In the expression de prestado, it can mean “on loan” or “by relying on someone else,” as in vivir de prestado (“to live at someone else’s expense” or “to live as a guest”).

Grammar & Word origin

Prestado is the masculine singular past participle of prestar , “to lend.” It is also used as an adjective and agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes: prestada, prestados, prestadas .

It is formed from the verb stem prest- and the participle ending -ado. The verb prestar comes from Latin praestare, meaning “to provide” or “to furnish.”

Synonyms & antonyms

There is no single synonym that works in every context:

tomado en préstamo means “borrowed” and emphasizes that something was taken temporarily.
cedido means “given” or “handed over”; it does not necessarily imply that the item will be returned.
prestado can describe either the borrower’s or the lender’s perspective.

There is no exact antonym. For something borrowed, propio (“one’s own”) contrasts with it. For something lent, the opposite depends on the situation rather than on a single word.