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acuerdo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word acuerdo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1230 Berceo More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin cor
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish acordar
Spanish acuerdo

Pronunciation

  • /aˈkweɾdo/, [aˈkweɾ.ð̞o][1]

Forms

acuerdo m (plural acuerdos)[1] Old Spanish texts also have aqüerdo, acordo and acort;[2] alcuerdo is a rustic form of Cantabria.[3][2]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Spanish acordar, one of the popular derivatives of that verb.[4][5][6] That verb, “to bring into agreement”, comes from Vulgar Latin *accordare, made by changing the prefix of concordō (“to agree”) and discordō (“to disagree”), derivatives of cor (“heart”).[4][7] Corominas rejects the view of Meyer-Lübke and Wartburg that the verb comes from chorda (“string of an instrument”); he allows that word only a secondary influence on the musical sense, “to tune”.[4]

The same verb is found in all the western Romance languages: Portuguese acordar, Catalan acordar, French accorder and Italian accordare.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Berceo's works.[8][2] In the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy) a sick man loses his senses: non avié nul acuerdo nin entendié raçón, “he had no awareness at all and did not understand speech”.[8][3] The Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, known from an 18th-century copy) already has the sense “good counsel”: God should give acuerdo to the erring people.[8] The earliest hit in a document of its own time is a ruling of the mayor of Laguardia of 1241, where the officials ouo so acuerdo, “took counsel”, with the good men of the town.[8] Corominas dated the word to 1251, in the Calila.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish acuerdo meant consultation and counsel, the resolution reached in it, agreement between people, and also consciousness or sound mind, often in phrases such as tornar en su acuerdo “to come to”.[9][3][10] Berceo has it for memory, for a resolution and for agreement (fueron en un acuerdo).[11] Nebrija glossed acuerdo en consejo as Latin decretum and acuerdo con otro as concordia.[12][13]

Autoridades (1726) defined it as a decision taken with mature thought, the resolution voted by a council, and judgement or sound mind (estar en su acuerdo).[14] The Academy's 1770 dictionary added the court of judges of a chancery or audiencia, and marked the sense “memory” as old.[15] Later editions added the harmony of colours in a painting.[16] The phrase de acuerdo “in agreement” was in the Academy's dictionary by 1817;[16][17] Baralt in 1855 criticised some of its newer uses as Gallicisms.[16][17] Today acuerdo is above all an agreement between parties; in Argentina, Mexico and other countries it also names meetings of ministers or officials and the Senate's approval of appointments.[6][18]

Timeline

  • c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán (in an 18th-century copy) uses the word for counsel.[8]
  • c. 1236 – the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos uses it for awareness.[8][3]
  • 1241 – a ruling of the mayor of Laguardia, the first hit in a contemporary document.[8]
  • 1251 – the Calila, Corominas's first record.[4][5]
  • c. 1275 – the opposite desacuerdo appears in the Primera Crónica General.[4][5]
  • 1528 – the first records from the Americas, in Nicaragua.[19]
  • 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “resolution”, “decree of a council” and “judgement”.[14]
  • 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records de acuerdo and the harmony of colours in painting.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of agreeing or resolving.[6]
  2. A resolution adopted by a court, company, community or other body.[6][1]
  3. A decision reached by one person or several after thought.[6]
  4. An agreement or pact between two or more parties: Los dos países firmaron un acuerdo comercial.[6][1]
  5. Reflection or maturity in deciding something.[6]
  6. Use of one's senses, lucidity: Volvió en su acuerdo al cabo de un rato.[6][14]
  7. (painting) A harmonious arrangement of colours and lines.[6]
  8. (Argentina, Uruguay) A plenary meeting of ministers or of the judges of a court; the Senate's approval of an appointment.[6][18]
  9. (Colombia, Mexico) A meeting of an official with close collaborators to decide matters together.[6][18]
  10. (rare) Memory, recollection.[6]

Word family

  • desacuerdo

Usage notes

De acuerdo means “in agreement” (estar de acuerdo, ponerse de acuerdo) and is also used alone to say “all right”;[20] de acuerdo con means “according to”.[6][20] The proverb dormiréis sobre ello y tomaréis acuerdo advises sleeping on an important decision.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. acuerdo
  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. acuerdo
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 41
  5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acordar
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. acuerdo
  7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 147
  8. ^ 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. acuerdo
  9. ^ 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. 124
  10. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. acuerdo
  11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 133
  12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 283
  13. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. acuerdo
  14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 73
  15. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 64
  16. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 17
  17. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 53
  18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. acuerdo
  19. ^ 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. acuerdo
  20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acuerdo
  21. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 11
Cite this entry

“Acuerdo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/acuerdo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·