acuciar

• aguciar (obsolete)

From acucia (“diligence, ardent desire”) +‎ -ar, semi-learned borrowing from Medieval Latin acūtiēs (“sharpness”), from Latin acūtus. Possibly related to crucial.

• IPA^(key): /akuˈθjaɾ/ [a.kuˈθjaɾ] (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /akuˈsjaɾ/ [a.kuˈsjaɾ] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: a‧cu‧ciar

acuciar (first-person singular present acucio, first-person singular preterite acucié, past participle acuciado)

1. (transitive) to encourage or urge on
2. (transitive) to harass

   un problema que acucia al país

   a problem wreaking havoc on the country

   • 1612, Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio, Las famosas asturianas, act 2, page 77:

     La luz les quité delante,
     aunque asaz se dormirán;
     que el cansancio los acucia.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2020, La economía circular, El concepto de sostenibilidad y los principales riesgos ambientales:

     se hace necesaria la acción conjunta de todos los países del mundo para abordar conscientemente los problemas ambientales que nos acucian.

     Joint action by all the world's countries is necessary to consciously tackle the environmental problems that are harassing us.

• “acuciar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025