agregación

Forms

agregación f (plural agregaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin aggregātiō (“a gathering together”), a learned word.^[2][1][3] Alonso and García de Diego derive it within Spanish from agregar, which Corominas dates to 1423 and gives with this derivative from about 1600.^[4][5][6]

The Latin noun is formed from aggregō (“to bring together into a flock”) with -tiō.^[1] The verb is a compound of ad- (“to”) and the stem of grex (“flock, herd”).^[7][8][6] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *gʷreg- (“group, herd”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hits in the CDH are in Enrique de Villena: in his Tratado de consolación (1424) the agregaçión is a tedious gathering of people, and in his Aeneid (1427–1428) an agregaçión de gente is a crowd brought together.^[10] The TDHLE dates the first passage about 1422 and gives the sense as “the action of adding or accumulating”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the late 15th century the word was used in medicine for the gathering of superfluous matter in a part of the body (1495), and in church documents for the union of one benefice to another (1497).^[10] Pedro de Medina's Arte de navegar (1545) quotes Alfraganus's book De la agregación de las estrellas.^[10] The 17th-century sense of the sum of all created things appears in Cobo (1653).^[11] In the Americas it is recorded from Panama in 1675, for the union of a province.^[12]

The Academy has listed it since 1726 as the action and effect of joining or adding.^[11][13] Newer senses are the post and office of an attaché, for which the DLE also has agregaduría, and in fencing the joining of the blades to feel the opponent's next movement.^[2]

Timeline

• 1424 – agregaçión in Enrique de Villena's Tratado de consolación.^[10]
• 1427–1428 – agregaçión de gente in Villena's Aeneid.^[10]
• 1497 – uniones, annexiones e agregaciones of church benefices in a letter of King Ferdinand.^[10]
• c. 1600 – the first record in Corominas.^[6]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary translates it as association and conjunction.^[11]
• 1675 – first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[12]
• 1726 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. aggregation: the action and effect of adding or joining (agregar): la agregación de dos municipios.^[2][1]
2. The post and office of an attaché (agregado); agregaduría.^[2][3]
3. (fencing) Joining the blades to sense a possible movement of the opponent.^[2]

Related words

• agregar
• agregado
• congregación
• disgregación
• segregación
• Latin grex

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. agregación
3. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. agregación
4. ^ 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. 176
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. agregación
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. agregar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. agregación
11. ^ 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. agregación
12. ^ a b 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. agregación
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 28