adoptivo

Forms

adoptivo (feminine adoptiva, masculine plural adoptivos, feminine plural adoptivas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote adoptiuo, adobtivo and adotiuo; the form without /p/, adotivo, is typical of the medieval language and survives in popular speech in parts of the Americas.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin adoptīvus (“adoptive, obtained by adoption”), a learned word.^[4][1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of adoptar, which he dates to the middle of the 15th century, in the family of optar.^[5][6]

The Latin adjective is formed from adoptō (“to adopt”) with the suffix -īvus.^[7][1] The verb is optō (“to choose”) with the prefix ad-, so that adopting is literally choosing for oneself.^[1][8]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese adotivo, Catalan adoptiu and French adoptif.^[9][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's earliest record is the plural adoptiuos in the Vidal Mayor, the Aragonese version of the Fueros de Aragón, of about 1250.^[3] The DHLE's slips begin with Enrique de Villena's translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428), where Augustus makes Tiberius su fijo adoptiuo, “his adopted son”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was used of a son by adoption, and in religious writing of the just, who are God's adopted children.^[2][11] Autoridades (1726) also recorded a figurative sense, “false, borrowed”, as of hair.^[11] The Academy applied it to the adopting parent as well from 1869, and in 1884 added the sense “chosen out of affection as what it is not by birth”, as in hermano adoptivo and patria adoptiva.^[12][13] The DLE keeps these senses, and adds “relating to adoption” (proceso adoptivo).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – adoptiuos in the Vidal Mayor.^[3]
• 1427–1428 – Villena's translation of the Aeneid has fijo adoptiuo.^[2]
• c. 1450 – the translation of the chronicle of Lucas de Tuy uses the form adotiuo.^[2]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the word and its figurative sense.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “chosen out of affection”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: related to someone by adopción rather than by birth; adopted (of a child) or adoptive (of a parent): Su madre adoptiva lo crió en Sevilla.^[4][1]
2. Relating to adoption or to an adopted person.^[4]
3. Of a place, community or country: considered one's own though one does not belong to it by birth: Barcelona fue su ciudad adoptiva.^[4][15]

Related words

• adopción
• adoptar
• optar
• Latin adoptīvus

Usage notes

Hijo adoptivo is also a title a town confers on a person born elsewhere, as hijo predilecto is for one born there.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. adoptivo
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. adoptivo
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. adoptivo
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. optar
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 288
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 511
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. adotivo
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. adoptiu
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 91
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 15
13. ^ 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. 23
14. ^ 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. adoptivo
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. adoptivo