abogado

Forms

abogado m (plural abogados, feminine abogada, feminine plural abogadas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it abogado, auogado, avogado, abocado, and with Latinising spellings adbogado, aduocado, advocado, advogado;^[2] uogado also occurs.^[3][2] Autoridades (1726) notes that by its Latin origin it should be written avogado, but follows Nebrija and Covarrubias in writing ⟨b⟩.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin advocātus (“one called in to help; legal counsel”), the noun use of the past participle of advocō (“to call, summon; to call in as counsel”), itself from vocō (“to call”).^[5][6][7][8] In Latin the participle had already become a legal term for one who supports or advises a party to a lawsuit.^[7][9] Gómez de Silva traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).^[8]

The verb abogar is recorded from the mid-13th century.^[5] The REW considers it a derivative of the noun, because its meaning “to act as counsel” rules out a direct link with Latin “to summon”.^[10]

The same Latin word is Galician avogado, Old Portuguese avogado, Italian avvocato and Old French avoé, today French avoué.^[10][11][1] Portuguese advogado is a semi-learned form remade on the Latin, and French avocat is a learned borrowing of 1160.^[12][13] The Catalan form abogat was taken from Spanish, according to the REW, while Catalan advocat is taken from Latin.^[10][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1235, known from an 18th-century copy), where the saint is the intercessor: En est pleit en que somos serie buen advocado “in this suit we are in he would be a good advocate”.^[3][15] The legal sense follows in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250): Enpeçó bien su rrazón commo buen aduocado “he began his speech well, like a good advocate”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

A saint, the Virgin or Christ is an abogado before God, in Alfonso X's chronicle (1284), in Juan Ruiz (1330) and in the Americas in 1568; the Salve calls the Virgin Abogada nuestra.^{[3][17][18][4]} The legal sense appears in the Fuero Juzgo (1254), though the Partidas name the lawyer bocero.^[17][19] The older word vocero “spokesman, advocate, defender” is recorded from 1127.^[20]

Autoridades (1726) defines the lawyer as one approved by the Royal Council or a Chancery to defend civil or criminal causes, and the 1843 edition of the Academy's dictionary as a professor of jurisprudence.^[4][21] The Academy's dictionary added abogado de secano, one who talks of law without having studied it, in 1884, and abogado del diablo, the promotor de la fe in a process of canonisation, and abogado de pobres in 1899.^[22][23] In the Canary Islands the same mocking figure is the abogado de sequero, in Cuba the abogado de manigua.^[3][24] In Nicaragua the word is used of a talkative, scheming person, and in the Dominican Republic of an argumentative one.^[25][26] Tagalog, Cebuano and Hiligaynon borrowed it.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1235 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán (in an 18th-century copy) uses advocado of the saint as intercessor.^[3]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has aduocado in the legal sense.^[16]
• 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo has auocados.^[17]
• 1284 – Alfonso X's chronicle calls Christ the Christians' auogado before God.^[17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin patronus for a lawyer in criminal cases.^[27]
• 1539 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from the verb abogar.^[19]
• 1726 – Autoridades discusses its spelling with ⟨b⟩.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, Latin advocatus, and adds abogado de secano.^[22]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary adds abogado del diablo and abogado de pobres.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lawyer: a professional of the law (derecho) who gives legal advice and is qualified to act before the courts or administrative bodies: Su padre fue abogado laboral durante treinta años.^[6][1][28]
2. A defender or mediator; one who intercedes for another.^[6][28]
3. A saint held to be the patron (patrono) or protector of certain persons, groups or things.^[29][4]
4. (Nicaragua) A talkative, scheming person.^[25]
5. (Dominican Republic) An argumentative person who always wants to be right.^[26]

Word family

• abogar
• abogacía

Related words

• vocero
• voz
• Latin advocātus
• Portuguese advogado

Usage notes

Set phrases include abogado de oficio, a lawyer assigned by the court to someone who cannot pay, abogado del diablo, one who raises objections to a cause, and the colloquial abogado de causas perdidas.^[6][25][29] Domínguez (1846) and Gaspar y Roig also record abogado as a name of the avocado tree (aguacate).^[30][31]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. abogado
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 13
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abogado
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. abogado
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. abogado
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. advocatus
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. advocatus
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. advogado
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. avocat
14. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. advocat
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
16. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 38
17. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024)
18. ^ 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
19. ^ 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. 48
20. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 845
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 4
23. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 4
24. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
25. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. abogado
26. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org
27. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 281
28. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
29. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
30. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 17
31. ^ 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, 19