alguien

Etymology

Corominas explains it as from Spanish alguno (“some, someone”) remodelled after quien (“who”).^[2][3] In his view the Romance languages first used the same word for “some” and “someone”, and Spanish and Portuguese then created a separate pronoun for persons, first Portuguese alguém and later the Castilian word, on the pattern of the relative and interrogative pronoun of persons beside cual and que, and of nadie beside ninguno and nada, so that it stood beside the adjective and algo.^[2]

The Academy's dictionaries since 1884 and the DLE derive it instead from Latin aliquem, the accusative of the Latin pronoun for “someone”, as most Romanists had done (the REW, Menéndez Pidal, Cuervo).^[4][5][6][2] The TDHLE gives the same etymology, with the stress shifted to *aliquém.^[7] The adjective itself is *alicunus, a contraction of the Latin pronoun with ūnus (“one”).^[2][8] Corominas objects that the pronoun appears in Castilian too late to continue the Latin accusative, which would in any case have given *algue.^[2] Nascentes makes the same point for Portuguese.^[9] Malkiel found 13th-century examples, all Leonese, and argued that Castilian took the word from the western dialects, where it would continue Latin.^[2] Corominas rejects a borrowing of so basic a pronoun.^[2] For Portuguese, Leite de Vasconcelos derived it from the Latin accusative recomposed with its stress on quem.^[10] Wiktionary gives both views and calls the analogy with the pronoun of persons the more accepted.^[1]

The word was first stressed on the last syllable, as in Portuguese: so the rhymes of Juan de Mena, Rengifo, Cervantes, Lope and Góngora require.^[2][7] Calderón already stresses the first syllable, which Corominas explains by the model of algo and of the pair nadie and nada.^[2] In 1625 Correas still thought the final stress the proper one, and the initial stress an affectation of “grave people”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records in the CDH are in 13th-century charters: a royal charter of 1253 has Qui prendare a otro alguien “whoever seizes anyone else”, and an exchange deed dated between 1218 and 1300 Si alguien de nos “if anyone of us”.^[11] Wiktionary dates the first record to a document of 1247 from San Esteban de Nogales.^[1] A Leonese cartulary of 1260 has Se alguien venier del mio linage “if anyone of my lineage should come”.^[7] Corominas dates the word in Castile only to the 15th century, in the Cancionero de Baena and Juan de Mena's Coronación of 1438.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija in 1492 thought alguien old-fashioned: “the ancients said alguien for alguno, alguna, like quien”.^[7] Correas in 1625 defended it as the proper word when the person may be a man or a woman, since alguno would force a gender.^[7] Autoridades made the same point, and called the word a corruption of Latin aliquis.^[12] Until the 1600s alguno was still often used as a noun for “someone”.^[2]

The sense “a person of some importance”, as in ser alguien and creerse alguien, is colloquial and often ironic.^[13][14] The partitive alguien de ustedes, for alguno de ustedes, has long been criticised in Puerto Rico and elsewhere;^[15][14] Moliner explains that the pronoun, like algo, nada and nadie, cannot refer to a group divided into individuals.^[15][14]

Timeline

• 1253 – a otro alguien in a royal charter.^[11]
• 1260 – Se alguien venier in the cartulary of Eslonza, León.^[7]
• before 1300 – Si alguien de nos in an exchange deed dated between 1218 and 1300.^[11]
• 1438 – Juan de Mena's Coronación, the first Castilian record according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija calls alguien a word of the ancients.^[7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario: alguien por alguno, Latin aliquis, quispiam.^[16][8]
• 1625 – Correas defends alghien with final stress;^[7][2] Calderón soon after stresses álguien.^[7][2]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as an alguno of one ending, for men and women alike.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin aliquem.^[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. someone, somebody: one or more persons whose identity is unknown or not revealed: Alguien ha dejado la puerta abierta.^[4][1]
2. anyone, anybody, in questions and conditions: ¿Alguien quiere más café?^[1][17]
3. (colloquial, as a noun) A person of some importance: Ahora se cree alguien.^[4][14]

Related words

• alguno
• algo
• quien
• nadie
• Latin aliquis
• Portuguese alguém

Usage notes

Alguien has no plural, and an adjective that goes with it is masculine singular.^[18][14] Its negative counterpart is nadie.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 163
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alguno
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. alguien
5. ^ 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. 52
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 345
7. ^ 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. alguien
8. ^ a b c 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. 237
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alguém
10. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 194
11. ^ 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. alguien
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 206
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. alguien
14. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alguien
15. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. alguien
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 290
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. alguien
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 87