adivino

Forms

adivino m (plural adivinos, feminine adivina, feminine plural adivinas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote adevino, adeuino, adebino and adevyno, and ade- prevailed in the Middle Ages.^[2] In the classical language it was shared with adi- in the 16th century, and adi- won in the 17th.^[2] Adevino survives as a rural archaism in most of the Spanish-speaking world, and Asturian has adivín.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish adevino, inherited from Latin dīvīnus (“soothsayer, prophet”), with its initial vowel taken from the verb adivinar.^[3][4][1] Latin already used the adjective as a noun for a soothsayer, and Old Spanish had divino or devino in this sense, but from the beginning the usual form had the initial vowel.^[3][5] The Spanish Wiktionary derives it directly from the verb.^[6]

The same Latin noun gave French devin (c. 1119), Portuguese adivinho, Italian divino and Welsh dewin.^[7][8] The adjective itself is formed from Latin dīvus (“divine, of a god”) + -īnus.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1230) calls the saint a certero adeujno, a sure prophet, foretelling that he would not stay long at San Millán.^[2][3] DEMel lists adevinos in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250).^[10] The BDELC dates the word 1220–1250.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General estoria sets the adeuinos beside the wise men and astrologers.^[11][2] The word also had a weaker sense, someone who guesses what is hidden, as in a poem of 1405 in the Cancionero de Baena: Yo non so adeujno, njn me entremeto de sser tal profeta “I am no soothsayer, nor do I set up as such a prophet”.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) records the proverb Por adivino le pueden dar cien azotes, said of someone who foretells what everybody can see coming.^[12] Autoridades (1726) describes the soothsayer's art as vain and adds that the counsellors of ancient kings were sometimes called adivinos.^[13] The Academy marked adevino as antiquated from 1726 to 1817.^[2]

The 1770 Academy dictionary added the sense of a person who infers by conjecture what will happen, and the mocking proverbs Adivino de Marchena and Adivino de Valderas.^[14] In Puerto Rico cantar a lo adivino means to sing improvised verse.^[15]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has adevinos.^[10]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo has adeujno.^[2][3]
• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria calls adeuinos those who foretell the future without God's inspiration.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the form adivino, the first with adi-.^[16][3]
• 1548 – Fernández de Oviedo writes adevinos in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records Por adivino le pueden dar cien azotes.^[12]
• 1726 – Autoridades enters adivino and marks adevino as old.^[13][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soothsayer or fortune teller, a person who predicts the future: La adivina le leyó las cartas.^[4][1]
2. A person who guesses or infers by conjecture what will happen.^[18][1]

Related words

• adivinar
• adivinanza
• divino
• Latin dīvīnus

Usage notes

The feminine is adivina.^[1][4] Por adivino le pueden dar cien azotes is said ironically of someone who announces what everybody already knows.^[12][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 h i j 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. adivino
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dios
4. ^ a b c 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. adivino
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dios
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. adivino
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. devin
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. divinus
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dīvīnus
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. adivino
11. ^ 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. adivino
12. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 67
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 86
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 73
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 83
16. ^ 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. 139
17. ^ 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. adevino
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 21
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 14