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alteración

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word alteración

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1376–1396 Juan Fernández de Heredia, De secreto secretorum More words from the 14th century
Borrowed from
Latin alteratio
Ultimate origin
Latin alter

Pronunciation

  • /alteɾaˈθjon/, [al̪.t̪e.ɾaˈθjõn], /alteɾaˈsjon/[1]

Forms

alteración f (plural alteraciones)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin alteratio (“change”), a learned borrowing like the verb alterar, which Corominas dates from the early 15th century.[2][1][3][4] DICCA-XV treats it instead as a derivative of the Spanish verb.[5]

The Latin noun is formed from alterō (“to change, make other”) with the suffix -tiō.[1] In Medieval Latin it meant “change”, and Du Cange also records it for “dispute”, like altercātiō.[6][7] The verb comes from alter (“the other of two”), the source of the popular Spanish word otro.[1][3][4] This adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *aliteros.[1] The same Latin noun is Catalan alteració, French altération and Italian alterazione.[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is Juan Fernández de Heredia's De secreto secretorum (1376–1396, in a manuscript of 1385–1393), on a medicine that purges the stomach sin ninguna alteraçion de la persona “without any disturbance of the person”.[9] The Sevillana medicina of Juan de Aviñón speaks of fevers cured con alteraciones rather than by bleeding.[10][9]

Semantic evolution

In 15th-century texts the word belongs to medicine and natural philosophy, the change of the elements and of the body.[10][9] Soon it also means a sudden disturbance of the mind: in Álvaro de Luna's Libro de las claras mujeres (1446) Julia miscarries con súbita alteraçión de su coraçón “with a sudden shock to her heart”.[10][11] Nebrija in about 1495 separates two senses, perturbatio “agitation” and alteratio “change of quality”.[5] The sense “unrest, tumult” is in a letter from Nicaragua of 1529 about quarrels, arrests and otras alteraciones.[12]

Domínguez in 1846 had physical and pathological senses and the musical sense, a change of a note by a semitone.[13] The DLE adds a philosophical sense, excessive dependence on the outside world, the opposite of ensimismamiento.[2]

Timeline

  • 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia's De secreto secretorum, the CDH's first record.[9]
  • 1425 – Enrique de Villena writes of the alteraçión de los elementos; this is DICCA-XV's first date.[10][5]
  • 1446 – the sense “sudden agitation”, in Álvaro de Luna.[10]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin perturbatio and alteratio.[5]
  • 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua, for “unrest”.[12]
  • 1846 – Domínguez records the musical sense.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. alteration, change: the act or result of altering or being altered: La lluvia obligó a una alteración del programa.[2][1]
  2. A start, agitation or disturbance of the mind.[2]
  3. unrest, tumult, riot.[2]
  4. An altercation, quarrel.[2][1]
  5. (philosophy) Excessive dependence on the influence of the outside world, the opposite of ensimismamiento.[2]
  6. (music) A sign that modifies the pitch of a note, an accidental.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. alteración
  3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 323
  4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. otro
  5. ^ a b c d 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
  6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  8. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 257
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ 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. alteración
  11. ^ 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. 265
  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. alteración
  13. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 99

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Alteración.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/alteraci%C3%B3n. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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