Etymologically
Log in

acompañamiento

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word acompañamiento

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1250 Vidal Mayor, spelt acompaynnamiento More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Vulgar Latin *compania
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish acompañar
Spanish acompañamiento

Pronunciation

  • /akompaɲaˈmjento/, [a.kõm.pa.ɲaˈmjẽn̪.t̪o][1]

Forms

acompañamiento m (plural acompañamientos)[1] Old Spanish texts also write aconpañamiento, aconpañamjento and aconpañamyento.[2] The Aragonese Vidal Mayor of about 1250 spells it acompaynnamiento.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish acompañar + -miento, “the act of accompanying”.[1][2][4] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of compañero without a date of its own.[5][6]

The verb acompañar is recorded from the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) on.[5][6] It is built on compaña (“company”), an old and dialectal word that continues Vulgar Latin *compania.[5][1] Corominas explains this Vulgar Latin noun as formed at the same time as Merovingian companio (“companion”), a calque of Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (gahlaiba, “companion”), from 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃 (hlaifs, “bread”) and a prefix of togetherness.[5][7] The word behind it is Latin pānis (“bread”): the companion is the one who eats the same bread.[6][8]

Echegaray compares Catalan acompanyament, French accompagnement and Italian accompagnamento.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the Aragonese law book Vidal Mayor of about 1250, in the form acompaynnamiento.[3] In Castilian prose the word appears in the 15th century: Alfonso de Cartagena's translation of Cicero's De officiis (1422) speaks of what is given “for the company of men”, and the Crónica de Don Álvaro de Luna describes people brought to Palencia “with a great and very noble escort”.[10]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495) gives the word in the sense “retinue”, with Latin comitatus and assectatio, and this sense of the people who go with someone dominates the 16th and 17th centuries, from Saint Teresa to Cervantes and Quevedo.[2][11] Covarrubias in 1611 has it for the escort at ceremonies, for the living or the dead, and for a lord's household following him.[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) added the musical sense: the playing of the instrument that accompanies the singer, and the part written for it.[12] The Academy's 1770 edition added the theatre sense of the extras who appear on stage without speaking, noting that Italian opera called them comparsa.[13] By 1899 the musical sense was defined as harmonic support of a main melody, beside a technical sense in the art of the thorough bass.[14] The culinary sense, the food served beside a main dish, is in the Academy's dictionary by 2001.[15]

Regional senses narrowed the “retinue”: in the Canary Islands it is the people at a wake and funeral, attested from 1866.[2] In Panama it means a wake, and in Ecuador the music a band plays at the fiestas organised by the priostes.[16] In New Mexico it names the people at a Penitente's deathbed, wake or funeral, and the party at a wedding.[17]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the verb acompañar in the Cantar de mio Cid.[5][6]
  • c. 1250 – acompaynnamiento in the Aragonese Vidal Mayor.[3]
  • 1422 – Alfonso de Cartagena uses acompañamjento in his translation of Cicero.[10]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario renders it comitatus, assectatio.[11][2]
  • 1550 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama.[18]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias describes the escort at ceremonies for the living and the dead.[2]
  • 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the musical sense.[12]
  • 1770 – the Academy adds the theatre sense of non-speaking extras.[13]
  • 1866 – the Canarian sense “funeral cortege” in a newspaper of Lanzarote.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act or effect of accompanying or keeping someone company: Necesita el acompañamiento de un adulto.[19][1]
  2. The people who go with someone; a retinue or escort.[19][20]
  3. (theatre, film) The extras who appear on stage or screen without speaking; comparsa.[19][15]
  4. A food or set of foods served alongside a main dish; a side dish: Pidió pescado con un acompañamiento de verduras.[19][1]
  5. (music) The harmonic support of a main melody by one or more instruments or voices; accompaniment.[19][1]
  6. (music) The art of applying harmony to the playing of the thorough bass.[19]
  7. (Panama) A wake for the dead.[16]

Usage notes

The phrase música y acompañamiento is recorded by the DLE.[19] In Domínguez's dictionary (1846–1847) surgery used acompañamiento de la catarata for the matter that follows the lens out in a cataract operation.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. acompañamiento
  3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. acompañamiento
  4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. acompañamiento
  5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 161
  6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. compañero
  7. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 117
  8. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 167
  9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 66
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. acompañamiento
  11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 283
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 59
  13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 53
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 13
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. acompañamiento
  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. acompañamiento
  17. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 24
  18. ^ 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. acompañamiento
  19. ^ a b c d e f g 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. acompañamiento
  20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acompañamiento
  21. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 29
Cite this entry

“Acompañamiento.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/acompa%C3%B1amiento. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·