Does cumpleaños have it's root in cumplir?

Question

I ask because, in the dictionary,

cumple años la próxima semana -> it's her birthday next week, she has her birthday next week

mañana cumplo 20 años -> I'm 20 o it's my 20th birthday tomorrow

¡que cumplas muchos más! -> many happy returns!

I usually think of it as to fulfill, but this definition is "to reach" and I see this post that says:

"Hijole . . . ¡no creia que cumplias tantos!"

which I translate to:

Holy smokes.... I can't believe you've gotten SO OLD.

(not sure why they used imperfect tense there either)

but it occurred to me, compleaños, cumplir.... Gracias....

Answer 1

It does.

¿Cuántos (años) cumples? = How (many years) old will you be?

Hoy cumplo años, porque es mi cupleaños (a silly sentence, by the way)

Cool, I will those out tomorrow at work with Olga. - jeezzle, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 2

Well, the word is composed by

cumplir + años

Doh, I never thought of it like that. ;) How about that, so it really means "reach age" like "it's your reached age", "you reached your age" Pretty cool ;) - jeezzle, Apr 7, 2011

I know "cumplir" does not have as one of its definitions "complete" but that also helps me to understand the concept...you reach a certain age, you've completed all the years leading up to same... - cristalino, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 3

Do they use use "abril" in Spain and other spanish-speaking countries (sans México) to indicate "years of age?" As in the example, una chica de 15 abriles = a girl of 15 years or summers? Which one is closest when translating into Inglés? Thanks!

I'm not sure about the "abriles thing", but we also say "primaveras": celebró sus quince primaveras. - Dakie, Apr 7, 2011

Muy interesante, Dakie... the explanations on this word kept using "summers" and in our hemisphere, the month of April falls in the spring, so your version makes more sense.... - cristalino, Apr 7, 2011