abyecto

Forms

abyecto (feminine abyecta, masculine plural abyectos, feminine plural abyectas)^[1] The older spellings are abiecto, abjecto, abjeto and abyeto; forms with ⟨y⟩ are exceptional until the early 18th century, and the Academy has accepted only abyecto since 1770.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin abiectus (“low, humble; cast down”), a learned word, the past participle of abiciō (“to throw away”).^[3][4][5][6] The Latin verb is formed from ab- (“away, down”) and iaciō (“to throw”).^[7][1] De Vaan traces this verb to Proto-Italic *jak-i- (“to throw”) and Proto-Indo-European *(H)ieh₁- (“to throw, let go”).^[8]

English abject is a cognate.^[1] Vox places it in the family of echar.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juan de Mena's Tratado de amor (before 1456) speaks of mágicos abiectos, base and despicable sorcerers.^[2][10] Corominas dated the word only to about 1560.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin participle meant first “downcast, dejected”, and in Christian Latin it took on the moral sense “rejected, contemptible”.^[11][6] Spanish used it from the 15th century for what is low, vile, cowardly or despicable, and in religious prose for the humble and cast-off.^[2][12] Sobrino in 1705 marked abjecto as old and rarely used, and the Academy in 1770 labelled the word antiquated, with the senses “dejected, despised, humiliated”.^[2][12] The 1843 edition dropped the label, and Salvá in 1846 added “low, vile, despicable”.^[13][14] The DLE now gives “despicable, utterly vile” first, and marks “humiliated” as obsolete.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1456 – Juan de Mena uses abiectos.^[2][10]
• 1494 – the noun abyección is recorded.^[4]
• 1524 – Palacios Rubios writes hombres abjectos y de poco ánimo.^[2]
• c. 1560 – Corominas's date of first record.^[3][4]
• 1650 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[15]
• 1705 – Sobrino marks abjecto as old.^[2]
• 1770 – the Academy fixes the spelling abyecto and labels the word antiquated.^[2][12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Despicable, utterly vile; abject: Fue un engaño abyecto.^[5][1][16]
2. (obsolete) Humiliated, wounded in one's pride.^[5]

Word family

• abyectamente

Related words

• abyección
• objeto
• sujeto
• proyecto
• echar
• Latin abiectus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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(2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. abyecto
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 26
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abyecto
5. ^ 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. abyecto
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. abyecto
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. abiciō
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. abyecto
10. ^ 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. 66
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. abiectus
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 27
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 5
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 8
15. ^ 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. abjecto
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abyecto