agente

Forms

agente m or f by sense (plural agentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin agens (“doing, acting”), the present participle of agō (“to drive, do, act”).^[2][3][4][1] De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”).^[5] Corominas dates the word to about 1560, in Las Casas, and agencia and agenciar to 1609, but the TDHLE and the CDH have it in medical and philosophical prose of the 15th century.^[2][6][7] Other learned words of the same verb are acto, acta, acción and actor.^[2][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record in the TDHLE is from 1425, in Villena's treatise on the evil eye, where the agente is the active power that acts on the air.^[6][9] The Sevillana medicina of Juan de Aviñón, dated to about 1381–1418 but known from a print of 1545, already calls the air un agente that can act only on bodies ready to receive it.^[6][7][10]

Semantic evolution

In medieval prose agente is the scholastic term for whatever acts, opposed to the paciente that is acted upon.^[6] The Diccionario de Autoridades in 1726 gives this sense and a second one, a person who handles another's business, with quotations from Argensola and Quevedo.^[11] In 1884 the Academy recorded the grammatical use and the trade terms agente de cambio and agente de negocios.^[12] Moliner adds the official who keeps public order, and today agente alone often means a police officer.^[13][1] In Bolivia agente or agente civil is a plain-clothes officer of a political police.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1381–1418 – the Sevillana medicina (in a print of 1545) calls the air an agent.^[6][7]
• 1425 – Villena's Tratado del aojamiento uses it for an active power.^[6]
• c. 1560 – first record in the DCECH and the BDELC, in Las Casas.^[2][3]
• 1609 – first record of agencia and agenciar.^[2]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “person who handles another's business”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the phrases agente de cambio and agente de negocios.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Acting, or able to act.^[4][13]
2. (grammar) Of or relating to the agent.^[4]

Noun

1. An agent, a person who acts for another to handle some business: Contrató a un agente para vender la casa.^[4][1]
2. A person who runs an agency (agencia) that handles other people's affairs or provides services.^[4]
3. In some security forces, an officer without rank; a police officer: Un agente le pidió la documentación.^[4][1]
4. A person or thing that produces an effect: El virus es el agente de esta enfermedad.^[4][13]
5. (grammar) The phrase that names who or what performs the action of the verb, as in a passive sentence.^[4][1]
6. (Bolivia) A plain-clothes officer of a political police.^[14]

Related words

• agencia
• acto
• acción
• Latin agens

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 43
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acto
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. agente
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. agō
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. agente
7. ^ 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. agente
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. agente
9. ^ 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. agente
10. ^ 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. 170
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 115
12. ^ 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. 29
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. agente
14. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. agente