actividad

Forms

actividad f (plural actividades)^[1] Fifteenth-century texts write actividat;^[2][3] actiuidad is common in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin āctīvitās (“capacity to act”), a term of scholastic philosophy that passed into other fields.^[4][5] Spanish has it from 1424.^[4][6] The Latin noun is formed from āctīvus (“active”) with the suffix -tās.^[1] In Latin grammar it meant the active sense of a verb.^[7] The adjective is derived from Latin agō (“to drive; to do, act”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”).^[1][8] In Spanish it can be analysed as activo with the suffix -idad.^[1]

The same word is Catalan activitat, Portuguese atividade, French activité and Italian attività.^[9][10][11] Nascentes takes the Portuguese word for semi-learned.^[12] Corominas dates the Spanish word to the end of the 16th century; the CDH has it from Enrique de Villena's works of the 1420s.^[13][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Enrique de Villena's Tratado de consolación (1424) says that a small heart that cannot bear bitterness makes itself unworthy of solaçiosa actividat “comforting activity”.^[2][4] In his letter to Suero de Quiñones (1427–1428) Villena uses it for the power of fire to burn: el fuego perder su actividad combustible, as in the furnace of the three youths.^[2]

Semantic evolution

For a long time the word meant the power or efficacy of a thing to act: a 1555 translation of Dioscorides speaks of the salamander's actiuidad, and in 1591 a Mexican text writes of la fuerça y actividad del fuego.^[3][14] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defines it as the great power of a thing, like fire that consumes a building in a few hours, and metaphorically as liveliness, diligence and promptness of a person.^[15] Gaspar y Roig records the physical esfera de actividad, the space over which a natural agent has its effect.^[16]

The Academy's 1884 edition gave the etymology and the phrase en actividad “in operation”, said of a volcano or a machine.^[17] The current dictionary adds the tasks proper to a person or body, usually in the plural, and the physical sense of the decay rate of a radioactive substance.^[6][18]

Timeline

• 1424 – Enrique de Villena's Tratado de consolación has actividat.^[2][4]
• 1427–1428 – Villena writes of the actividad combustible of fire.^[2]
• 1555 – Andrés Laguna's Dioscorides uses actiuidad for the effect of the salamander.^[3]
• 1591 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “efficacy” and “diligence, promptness”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology and the phrase en actividad.^[17]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary has the physical sense measured in becquerels.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. The faculty or power of acting: A sus noventa años mantiene una gran actividad.^[6][1]
2. diligence, efficacy.^[6]
3. Promptness in acting.^[6]
4. An activity; usually in the plural, the operations or tasks proper to a person or body: Las actividades del club empiezan en octubre.^[6][1]
5. (physics) The number of atoms of a radioactive substance that decay per unit of time, measured in becquerels.^[6]

Word family

• inactividad

Related words

• activo
• acto
• acción
• Latin āctīvitās

Usage notes

En actividad means “working, in operation”: un volcán en actividad.^[17][19]

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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. actividad
3. ^ a b c d 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. actividad
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. actividad
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
6. ^ 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. actividad
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 13
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. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. activitat
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. atividade
11. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 79
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. atividade
13. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acto
14. ^ 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. actividad
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 70
16. ^ 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, 38
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 17
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. actividad
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. actividad