absurdo

Forms

absurdo (feminine absurda, masculine plural absurdos, feminine plural absurdas)^[1] The forms acsurdo, apsurdo, arsurdo, asurdo and ausurdo are popular variants in Spain and in several countries of the Americas.^[2] Asurda is recorded in Panama in 1543.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin absurdus (“out of tune; senseless”), a learned word.^[4][5][1][2] The BDELC dates it from about 1440, together with absurdidad, but the historical dictionaries have it from about 1400.^[5][2][6]

The Latin adjective is formed from ab- and surdus (“deaf”), the source of sordo.^[7][8] In Latin it was first said of a sound out of tune or discordant.^[8] De Vaan explains it as “unheard of”, since the simple adjective could mean both “not hearing” and “not heard”; he calls a reverse explanation, in which the simple adjective took the meaning “not hearing” from the compound, very speculative.^[9]

Baist, followed with doubt by the REW and by García de Diego, derived zurdo “left-handed” from the same Latin adjective.^[10][11] Corominas instead relates the word for “left-handed” to a pre-Roman word akin to Basque zur (“stingy”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the Vida de los filósofos of about 1400: ¿Qué cosa puede ser más absurda que buscar mucha vianda quando poco queda por andar del camino? “What could be more absurd than to seek much food when little of the road is left to travel?”^[6][2][13]

Semantic evolution

Juan de Lucena uses the adjective in his Vita beata of 1463.^[6] The noun, “an absurd saying or deed”, is in the Diccionario de Autoridades, with a quotation from Cervantes's Viaje del Parnaso: Absurdos hace, y forma solecismos “he commits absurdities and makes solecisms”.^[14] In the Americas it is found from 1614 in Quito, tantos absurdos y confusiones “so many absurdities and confusions”.^[3] Zerolo's dictionary of 1895 held that absurdo is said of things and not of persons, a rule that the examples of the historical dictionary contradict.^[2] Today the adjective also means “extravagant” and “shocking, contradictory”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – first record, in the Vida de los filósofos.^[6][2]
• c. 1440 – the BDELC's first date, with absurdidad.^[5]
• 1463 – Juan de Lucena, Vita beata.^[6]
• 1543 – the popular form asurda in Panama.^[3]
• 1770 – the Academy's dictionary defines it as “repugnant to reason”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Del lat. absurdus.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Contrary to reason, making no sense; absurd, preposterous; also as a noun: Es absurdo discutir con él a estas horas.^[4][1]
2. Extravagant, irregular.^[4]
3. Shocking, contradictory.^[4]

Noun

1. An irrational, arbitrary or nonsensical saying or act: Aquella decisión fue un absurdo.^[4][1]

Word family

• absurdidad

Related words

• sordo
• Latin absurdus
• Latin surdus

Usage notes

Reducir al absurdo is to carry an argument to an absurd consequence in order to show that its premise is false; the noun is reducción al absurdo.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. absurdo
3. ^ a b c 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. absurdo
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. absurdo
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sordo
6. ^ a b c d e 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. 60
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 310
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 41
12. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. zurdo
13. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. absurdo
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 25
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 8
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. absurdo