alerta

Forms

alerta m or f (masculine and feminine plural alertas)^[1] In Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and other American countries the noun is often masculine, el alerta.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian all'erta, literally “on the height”, a phrase built on erta (“ascent, slope”), the noun use of erto (“raised, steep”), originally the participle of the old verb ergere (“to raise”).^[3][4][5][1] The Italian verb continues Latin ērigō (“to raise, set upright”) through a contracted form *ergere,^[4][6][7] and the Latin verb is formed of ex- and regō.^[8]

The phrase was at first a call to soldiers to rise and stand on guard against an attack.^[3][4] Bénaben explains it as a summons to go up to the high ground and watch for the enemy.^[9] According to Corominas, the Italian phrase stare allerta is found from the second half of the 15th century, and the adjective since Dante.^[3] Nocentini dates the adverb allerta to 1536.^[10] From Italian the word also passed into French alerte in the 16th century and into the other Romance languages,^[3] for example Portuguese alerto (“watchful”).^[6]

Older scholars connected the word with Latin alers (“skilful, clever”), an adjective found only in Latin glossaries.^[3] Corominas, like Heraeus before him, rejects the idea, because the word never occurs in texts and may itself be a Latinisation of the Romance word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is in the Corónica de Adramón of about 1492, where someone secretly tells his men to keep watch: que estuvyesen al ojo alerta.^[11][1] Corominas's first record is in Torres Naharro's Seraphina (1517), which says that one must estar alerta to follow characters speaking four languages.^[3][12] In both the word is an adverb meaning “on the watch, attentively”.^[12][11]

Semantic evolution

The adverb, used with estar, andar or vivir, is the oldest and most frequent use in the Golden Age.^[12][13] Fernández de Oviedo used it as an adjective in the 1540s, describing an animal with ears pricked up and alert, and Classical Spanish also formed the adjective alerto (first half of the 16th century, Castillejo) and the verb alertar;^[14] Corominas described both as old-fashioned in his day.^[12][3] The Quijote has both estar alerta and the adjective in oydo alerto.^[14] Autoridades (1726) records the phrase ojo alerta “look out!”, and guesses that the word comes from Latin erectus, because a sentry stands on high ground.^[13]

The noun entered the Academy's dictionary in 1817 as the call that sentries pass to one another so as not to fall asleep, or give to the troops so that they are ready.^[15] In 1884 the Academy gave the Italian etymology and described ¡alerta! as an interjection of the sentries.^[16] Today the noun mostly means a state of watchfulness or a warning, and the authorities grade it in colours: alerta amarilla, alerta naranja, alerta roja.^[5][17] In Tenerife and La Palma alerta is also the name of a children's team game played with a handkerchief.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1492 – the Corónica de Adramón has al ojo alerta.^[11][1]
• 1517 – Torres Naharro's Seraphina, the DCECH's first record.^[3][12]
• 1535–1557 – Fernández de Oviedo uses the word as an adjective, of an animal's ears.^[12][11]
• 1549 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, in the form a la lerta.^[19]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “ready, prepared”.^[20]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines the adverb and the phrase ojo alerta.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the feminine noun, the sentries' call.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del ital. all'erta”.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. alert, vigilant, watchful: Tenía los oídos alerta.^[5][1]

Noun

1. (feminine) A state of watchfulness or readiness: La ciudad sigue en alerta.^[5][17]
2. (feminine, sometimes masculine) A warning or call to be on guard; an alarm: dar la alerta.^[5][1][2]

Adverb

1. On the watch, attentively, usually with estar, andar or vivir: Hay que estar alerta en la carretera.^[5][1]

Interjection

1. Look out!, a call to be watchful.^[5][16]

Word family

• alertar
• alerto

Related words

• erguir
• erigir
• yerto
• Italian allerta
• French alerte

Usage notes

The noun is masculine or feminine, mostly feminine in Spain; the masculine el alerta is usual in parts of the Americas.^[5][2] As an adjective it can take the plural alertas.^[1][2] Alerta roja is the highest level of alert, alerta amarilla and alerta naranja the lower ones.^[5][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. alerta
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 143
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alerta
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. alerta
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2899
7. ^ 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. 666
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alerta
12. ^ 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. alerta
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 194
14. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 49
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alerta
18. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. alerta
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. alerta
20. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins