acelerador

Forms

acelerador (feminine aceleradora, masculine plural aceleradores, feminine plural aceleradoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish acelerar + -dor, “that which accelerates”.^[1][2] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of acelerar, which he dates about 1460 (the Crónica de Juan II).^[3]

The verb is from Latin accelerāre (“to hasten”), from ad- and celerō (“to quicken”), itself from celer (“swift”).^[3][1] The earliest Spanish records are anatomical and keep the Latin form, and the word appears with its Spanish form in Terreros's dictionary at the end of the 18th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is preceded in Spanish anatomy by a Latin form: M. Martínez's Anatomía (1728) says that some call the ejaculatory muscles acceleratores because they quicken the expulsion of semen and urine.^[4] In 1730 Suárez Ribera's Clave médica describes the acceleratores as two muscles of the penis.^[4] The Spanish form acelerador is first recorded in Terreros's dictionary (1786).^[4]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical sense, a muscle or nerve that speeds up a function, was the first.^[4] Salvá marked the general sense “one who accelerates” as a neologism in 1847, and Gaspar y Roig (1853) added a mechanical sense, a force that gives a moving body new speed at every instant.^[4][5] Alemany (1917) records a device of electric clocks that advances the regulator.^[4] With the motor car came the sense “part that speeds up the engine”: a vocabulary of motoring defines it in 1906, and the pedal is common in 20th-century fiction, as in pisar el acelerador “to step on the accelerator”.^[4] Chemistry uses it for a substance that speeds up a reaction, and physics has acelerador de partículas, an installation that accelerates charged subatomic particles.^[6]

Timeline

• 1728 – M. Martínez's Anatomía uses the Latin form acceleratores.^[4]
• 1786 – Terreros records the Spanish form.^[4]
• 1847 – Salvá's dictionary lists acelerador as a neologism.^[4]
• 1853 – Gaspar y Roig gives anatomical and mechanical senses.^[5]
• 1906 – a vocabulary of motoring defines the accelerator of the car engine.^[4]
• 1960 – first record of the car pedal in the Americas, in Mexico.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That accelerates (acelerar): un efecto acelerador.^[6][1]
2. (anatomy) Of a muscle or nerve: that speeds up a function.^[4]

Noun

1. The mechanism that regulates the power of an engine, and the pedal or lever that works it; accelerator: Pisó el acelerador al salir del túnel.^[6][8][1]
2. (chemistry) A substance that increases the speed of a reaction without acting as a catalyst (catalizador).^[6][1]
3. (physics) Short for acelerador de partículas, a particle accelerator.^[6][9]

Related words

• célere
• celeridad
• aceleración

Usage notes

Pisar el acelerador is also used figuratively for speeding up a matter or process.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. acelerador
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 20
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. acelerador
5. ^ a b 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, 29
6. ^ 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. acelerador
7. ^ 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. acelerador
8. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acelerador
9. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. acelerador