acción

Forms

acción f (plural acciones)^[1] Old and classical texts also write acçión, açión, ación, azión and actión;^[1] açión and ación were literary forms until the last third of the 16th century and were then left to popular speech.^[2] The spelling asyón, with seseo, appears in a Mexican document of 1527, and present-day popular forms include aición (Mexico, Navarre), aución (Chile) and arción (Santo Domingo).^[2] Asturian has aición.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin āctiō (“a doing, action”), a learned word like all the Spanish words built on the Latin verb agō (“to drive, do”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed on the supine āctum with the suffix -tiō.^[1][6] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”), and lists the noun among its derivatives, attested from Varro on.^[7]

The Latin noun also gave French action, which goes back to Old French acciun and was remodelled on the Latin form in Middle French.^[1] The REW derives Italian lazzo (“comic gag, grimace”) from it as well, a word that spread through the comedy of the 16th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), in the legal sense of a claim brought before a judge: si non fuere la petiçion o acçion de XX menkales o mas “unless the petition or claim is of twenty mencales or more”.^[9][2] Corominas cites an early example from the Libro de Alexandre (stanza 1095), and the BDELC gives about 1490 as the date of the word.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Spanish the word belonged mainly to the law: the right to go to court, and the claim or suit itself, as in a Huesca document of 1274 and a charter of 1307.^[2] Corominas dates the military sense “engagement, combat” to 1569 and the general sense “act, deed” to Saint John of the Cross (died 1591); the commercial sense “share in a company” first appears in Autoridades.^[3] French action has had its financial sense since 1669.^[10]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary gives the etymology and lists, beside the general senses, the gestures and movements of the orator and the actor.^[11] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 records the share of a company, the legal and military senses and the plot of a dramatic or epic poem.^[12] The current DLE adds a sense in physics, the plot of a film and the call that starts a take in filming.^[5] In Peru and Chile the word has been used for a raffle ticket, and in old Cuban usage for a share of land in an estate held in common.^[13] The word passed into Tagalog as aksiyon.^[1]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses acçion for a legal claim.^[9][2]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, in a copy of the early 15th century, has the plural acçiones.^[9][3]
• 1274 – a document from Huesca renounces every ecçepçión e acçión.^[2]
• c. 1490 – the BDELC's date for the word, in the legal sense.^[4][3]
• 1527 – the seseo spelling asyón appears in a Mexican notarial record.^[2]
• 1569 – first record of the military sense.^[3]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the commercial sense, and the verb accionar.^[3][4]
• 1870 – first record of accionista “shareholder”.^[3][4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. actio”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The exercise of the power to do something; action, activity: Basta de planes: ahora toca la acción.^[5][1]
2. Something done; an act or deed: Fue una acción muy generosa.^[5][14][1]
3. The effect that an agent has on something: la acción del viento sobre las dunas.^[5]
4. The gestures and movements with which an orator, singer or actor accompanies the words or the song.^[5]
5. The sequence of events that makes up the plot of a narrative, play or film.^[5]
6. (military) An engagement, combat.^[5][1]
7. (law) The right to go to a judge or court to protect a right or interest; a legal action or lawsuit.^[5][1]
8. (economics) A share in the capital of a company: Ha vendido sus acciones de la empresa.^[5][1]
9. (fencing) A movement.^[5]
10. (physics) The quantity defined as the energy absorbed during a process multiplied by its duration.^[5]
11. (Peru, Chile) A raffle ticket.^[13]

Interjection

1. (film) Called out to tell actors and crew that a take is beginning.^[5][1]

Word family

• accionar
• accionista

Related words

• accionario
• activo
• actuar
• inacción
• reacción
• acto
• acta
• Latin āctiō
• French action

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. acción
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 43
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acto
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. acción
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 116
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. acción
10. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
11. ^ 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. 11
12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 20
13. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 62
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acción