actualidad

Forms

actualidad f (plural actualidades)^[1] The 15th-century record writes actualidat.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish actual + -idad.^[3][1][4] Gómez de Silva derives it instead from Medieval Latin actualitas, from āctuālis (“relating to acts”).^[5] actual is recorded from 1460 and comes from the Latin adjective, in the sense “active, practical”.^[6] Corominas lists the noun among its derivatives, without a date.^[6]

Baralt in 1855 condemned the sense “topical interest” as a Gallicism after French actualité, which he said was itself a neologism in that sense.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in Pedro Marín's Sermones (after 1455, in a copy of the second half of the 15th century), where actualidat is a term of scholastic philosophy, the actual being of a subject as opposed to its potential.^[2] The Academy's historical dictionary begins its record with the same philosophical sense, “reality, as opposed to potentiality”, quoted first from 1691 and then from Feijoo (1729).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Until the 18th century the word was mostly philosophical and theological: Saint John of the Cross (c. 1578) wrote of the actualidad of the souls' feeling of pain.^[2] The Academy defined it in 1770 as “the present state of something” and, in philosophy, as the action of form upon matter, while Terreros (1786) called it a legal word meaning “present circumstances”.^[8][9][4] The sense “present time”, as in en la actualidad, is quoted from 1851, and the Academy took it in from 1884.^[4][10] The sense “interest for the present moment”, usually in de actualidad, appeared around 1850;^[7] Baralt and later purists rejected it as French, and the Academy's 1927 dictionary still censured it, a warning dropped in 1950.^[4][7] The DLE today has “present time” and “what draws people's attention at a given moment”.^[3]

Timeline

• after 1455 – actualidat in Pedro Marín's Sermones, in a philosophical sense.^[2]
• c. 1578 – Saint John of the Cross uses it in the Noche oscura.^[2]
• 1691 – the first quotation in the Academy's historical dictionary, for “reality, as opposed to potentiality”.^[4]
• 1747 – first record from the Americas, in Costa Rica.^[11]
• 1770 – the Academy defines it as “present state of something”.^[8]
• 1850 – Sarmiento writes of asunto de actualidad “a topical matter”.^[4]
• 1851 – Tamayo y Baus uses en la actualidad “at present”.^[4]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns the sense “topical interest” as a Gallicism.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “present time”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The present time: En la actualidad trabaja en una editorial.^[3][1]
2. Something that draws general attention at a given moment; current events, news: un tema de mucha actualidad.^[3][1][12]
3. (philosophy) The quality of being actual, as opposed to potential (potencialidad).^[13][4]

Related words

• actual
• actualizar
• French actualité

Usage notes

En la actualidad “at present, nowadays” and de actualidad “topical” are the usual phrases.^[12][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. actualidad
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. actualidad
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. actualidad
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 34
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acto
7. ^ a b c d Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 52
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 62
9. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 26
10. ^ 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. 18
11. ^ 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. actualidad
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. actualidad
13. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. actualidad