acto

Forms

acto m (plural actos)^[1] Old and classical texts also write abto, aucto, atto and ato, and the semi-learned auto;^[2] aito is a vulgar form recorded in Mexico.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin actus (“a doing, act”), a noun formed from agō (“to drive; to do”).^[4][5][1][6] The BDELC dates it to the second half of the 13th century, while the DCECH, in its article on acta, lists it among the learned derivatives of the Latin verb and dates it from the 15th century.^[4][7] The semi-learned auto “judicial decree; religious play”, recorded around 1300, is a doublet of the same Latin noun and once also meant “act”; in the legal sense the two forms have been synonyms from Alfonso X to the present.^[4][7] García de Diego notes that in the popular language the Latin noun gave way to factum, the source of hecho, so that it returned only as a learned word.^[8]

The same Latin noun gave Italian atto, French acte and Portuguese auto.^[9] The Latin word first meant the driving of cattle or carts, and the right of way for driving them, and then any doing or performance.^[6] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *age/o- and to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Two of the earliest CDH hits (1247, c. 1250) are the personal name Ato in law texts, and others are a form of the verb atar “to tie”, not this word.^[11] The first real record is in Alfonso X's Espéculo (before 1260), in the legal sense “records of a lawsuit”: el traslado del juyzio & de los actos del pleito “the copy of the judgment and of the proceedings of the suit”.^[11] The Academy's historical dictionary gives the sense “deed, action” from the Crónica de los Estados Peninsulares (1305–1328): los actos de cavallería “the deeds of knighthood”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defines the word as anything that is done, and notes that the records of a court case, once called actos, were by then called autos.^[12] The Academy's 1770 dictionary gives the theatrical sense, saying it is the same as jornada, the older word for the part of a play.^[13] The 1817 edition lists the public disputations held at universities and the sense “sexual intercourse”, and in 1843 the Roman measure of length.^[14][15] The 1899 edition gives the sense “public and solemn event”, which the 1884 edition lacks.^[16][17][5]

Set phrases include acto de contrición “act of contrition”, en el acto “at once” and acto seguido “immediately afterwards”.^[5][1] The Academy's historical dictionary notes that one of its senses is a calque of English act.^[3] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1515 in Tierra Firme.^[18]

Timeline

• before 1260 – Alfonso X's Espéculo speaks of the actos of a lawsuit.^[11]
• c. 1300 – the BDELC's date for the semi-learned doublet auto.^[4]
• 1305–1328 – the Crónica de los Estados Peninsulares has actos de cavallería.^[3]
• c. 1453 – the Crónica de Álvaro de Luna uses it for human deeds.^[19]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[18]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as anything done.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy gives the theatrical sense.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy lists the university exercise and the sexual sense.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the Latin etymon.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An act or action: the exercise of the power to do something, or the thing done: Fue un acto de valor que nadie olvidó.^[5][1]
2. A public or solemn ceremony: El acto de inauguración se celebró en el ayuntamiento.^[5][1]
3. (theatre) Each of the main parts into which a play or other stage work is divided: una ópera en cuatro actos.^[5][1]
4. (law) A legal provision.^[5]
5. A movement of the mind towards a feeling or attitude, as in acto de fe or acto de contrición.^[5]
6. (historical) Each of the public exercises held at universities to prove a student's competence.^[5][14]
7. (historical) A Roman measure of length of 120 feet, about 36 metres.^[5][15]
8. (philosophy) What is real, the actuality that perfects a potency.^[5]
9. Sexual intercourse, in full acto sexual.^[20][14]

Word family

• entreacto

Related words

• acción
• actuar
• auto
• acta
• activo
• actor
• Latin actus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. acto
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. acto
4. ^ a b c d 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 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. acto
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 43
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 107
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. acto
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 71
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 62
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 16
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 11
16. ^ 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. 17
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 16
18. ^ 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. abcto
19. ^ 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. 121
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. acto