átomo

Forms

átomo m (plural átomos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin atomus (“indivisible; atom”), a learned word first found in the works of Don Juan Manuel, who died in 1348.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is taken from Ancient Greek ἄτομος (átomos, “uncut, indivisible”),^[2][5][1] formed from ἀ- (a-, “not”) and τομ- (tom-), the o-grade of the root of τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”).^[1][6] The Greek philosophers Democritus and Epicurus used it for the indivisible particle of matter, and 19th-century chemistry gave it its modern sense.^[7]

The Latin word also had a popular outcome in Italian, Italian attimo (“instant, moment”).^[8] Corominas lists diatomea as a learned word from διάτομος (diátomos, “cut in two”), another derivative of the same Greek verb.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to Don Juan Manuel, about 1330.^[2][3] The DEMel lists the word in the vocabulary of his works,^[9] and DICCA-XV reports a CORDE record of 1327–1332.^[10] The sense was the philosophers' one: the smallest body, thought to be impossible to divide.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glossed it about 1495 as a thing that cannot be divided, with Latin atomus.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 used it for the tiny motes that float in the air and are seen only in a sunbeam coming through a crack in the window, and also for the elements, whose parts are all of one kind.^[12] Autoridades kept the indivisible body and the motes, and added a figurative sense, any very small thing, much used by the poets, with phrases such as no exceder en un átomo “not to go beyond something in the least”.^[11][13]

Gaspar y Roig in 1853 noted an obsolete sense, the smallest parts of an hour,^[14] which goes back to Medieval Latin, where atomus meant the smallest part of an hour.^[15] In 1899 the Academy defined the atom as the hypothetical primary element of bodies, infinitely small,^[16] and the 2001 edition describes it as the smallest quantity of a chemical element, made of a nucleus with protons and neutrons and orbiting electrons.^[4] The first record from the Americas, in 1591 in Mexico City, already uses it for a tiny amount: un áthomo de azogue “an atom of quicksilver”.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – first record, in Don Juan Manuel.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it as a thing that cannot be divided.^[10]
• 1591 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it as a Greek word and applies it to the motes seen in a sunbeam.^[12]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the figurative sense “any very small thing”, with quotations from Lope de Vega.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Greek for the first time.^[18]
• 1899 – the Academy defines it as the hypothetical primary element of bodies.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (physics, chemistry) An atom: the smallest quantity of a chemical element that has an existence of its own, once thought to be indivisible, made of a nucleus of protons and neutrons with electrons around it.^[4][1][19]
2. A particle of matter of extreme smallness.^[4]
3. Anything very small; in negative sentences, the least bit: No le quedaba ni un átomo de paciencia.^[4][19]

Word family

• atómico
• atomismo
• atomizar

Related words

• diatomea
• Latin atomus
• Italian attimo

Usage notes

Átomo gramo is the number of grams of an element equal to its atomic weight.^[4] The colloquial phrase en un átomo meant “in the least thing” in the 19th-century dictionaries.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 401
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. átomo
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. átomo
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. átomo
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. átomo
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 757
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. átomo
10. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. átomo
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 471
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 240
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 472
14. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 272
15. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 107
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. átomo
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 116
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. átomo