aceleración

Forms

aceleración f (plural aceleraciones)^[1] Older texts also write acceleración, açeleraçión and azeleración.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin accelerātiō (“speeding up, acceleration”); it can also be analysed as acelerar with the suffix -ción.^[3][1][4] Corominas lists it among the learned derivatives of célere, beside the verb, which is from about 1460.^[5][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese aceleração, Catalan acceleració, French accélération and Italian accelerazione.^[1][7][8]

The Latin noun is formed from accelerō (“to quicken, hasten”) with -tiō, and the verb from ad- and celerō (“to quicken”), from celer (“swift”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in the sermons of Pedro Marín (after 1455, in a copy of the second half of the 15th century), where the hastening of sin in man brings death nearer.^[10] Diego de San Pedro's Cárcel de amor (1483–1492) uses it for the confusion that haste causes: como estaua con la aceleración desacordado “as he was bewildered by his haste”.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

In the classical language the word meant above all rashness, haste and agitation: an Indian speaks con mucha aceleración (1555), and Juan de Ávila calls anger and haste the enemies of good counsel.^[2] In Yucatán in 1562 it describes an angry, impetuous order, and in Mexico in 1670 a sudden death.^[12] Corominas dates it to 1623.^[6] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 defined it as the action of accelerating and added the sense in mechanics, the increase of speed in a unit of time.^[13] In astronomy the aceleración de las estrellas fijas is the interval by which the passage of a star over a meridian daily precedes that of the Sun.^[14][15] In Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina it also names a state of extreme haste or nervousness.^[16]

Timeline

• after 1455 – first record, as acceleración, in Pedro Marín's sermons.^[10]
• 1483–1492 – Diego de San Pedro uses it for the confusion caused by haste.^[2][11]
• 1519 – Fernández de Oviedo writes of the haste of a departure.^[10]
• 1562 – first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[12]
• 1623 – the date Corominas gives.^[6]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense in mechanics.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action or effect of accelerating (acelerar): La aceleración de las obras sorprendió a los vecinos.^[3][17]
2. (physics) acceleration: the rate of change of velocity (velocidad) per unit of time, measured in metres per second squared.^[3][1]
3. Haste, hurry.^[15][2]
4. (Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina) A state of extreme haste, restlessness or nervousness.^[16]

Related words

• acelerar
• celeridad
• Latin celer

Usage notes

Carril de aceleración is the acceleration lane of a road.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. aceleración
3. ^ 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. aceleración
4. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. aceleración
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 20
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. celeridad
7. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 62
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. acceleració
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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. aceleración
11. ^ 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. 94
12. ^ 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. aceleración
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 11
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. aceleración
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aceleración
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aceleración
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. aceleración