antiguo

Forms

antiguo (feminine antigua, masculine plural antiguos, feminine plural antiguas, superlative antiquísimo)^[1] Old Spanish had the masculine antigo beside the feminine antigua;^[2] antigo is still in Berceo, the Libro de Alexandre, Fernán González and López de Ayala.^[3][2] The superlative is antiquísimo, taken from Latin.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish antigo, inherited from Latin antīquus (“former, ancient”), recorded in Spanish since a charter of 1043.^[3][4][5][1] Good Latin manuscripts have antīcus beside the feminine with /kʷ/, and Corominas takes this inflection as the starting point of all the Romance forms, so that Old Spanish regularly had a masculine without /w/ and the feminine antigua.^[3] Castilian then extended the stem of the feminine to the masculine, as the DLE, García de Diego and Wiktionary also explain;^[1] Old French did the same in Old French antif beside antive.^[3][5][6][1] The other Romance languages generalised the masculine: Portuguese antigo, Catalan antic and Italian antico.^[3][1]

The older masculine was taken to the Americas as a popular form, and it is the source of antigal, used in northern Argentina for mounds of prehistoric remains.^[3]

The Latin adjective is derived from ante (“before, in front”); de Vaan reconstructs *h₂enti-h₃kʷ-o- (“facing the front”), the second part being the root of oculus (“eye”), and explains the variant with /k/ by the regular loss of the labial element in the nominative.^[7][1] Its earliest sense was local, “lying in front”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1043 in Oelschläger's list.^[3] In Alfonso X's Lapidario the word already means both “of long standing” (tos antigua “a chronic cough”) and “of remote times” (los sabios antigos “the ancient sages”), and in the plural “the ancients”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General estoria calls God aquel antigo de los días “that Ancient of Days”.^[9] In the Libro de buen amor the rhyme sometimes requires antigos where the manuscripts have antiguos.^[10] Nebrija's Vocabulario applies it to age, with the Latin senex and senior, and Covarrubias (1611) explains it as one who comes before another in age, rank or admission; for him los antiguos are our forebears.^[11][12]

Autoridades defined it as what comes from long ago and as one who precedes another in age, rank or admission.^[13] The Academy's 1770 edition added the noun for a senior member of a college and the plural for those who lived in remote ages.^[14] Salvá (1846) recorded “out of fashion”.^[15] Placed before a noun it means “former”, a use that Santamaría records in Mexico (antiguo alumno).^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1043 – first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses antigua and the masculine antigos.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the form antiguo.^[3][11]
• 1538 – first record from the Americas, in Lima;^[18] antigo still appears in Peru in 1540.^[18]
• 1548 – antigualla is recorded, taken from Italian anticaglia.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains los antiguos as our forebears.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy adds the noun for a senior member of a college.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the phrase de antiguo.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That has existed for a long time, old: Viven en un caserón antiguo.^[5][1]
2. That existed or happened in remote times, ancient: las ciudades antiguas de Mesopotamia.^[5][1]
3. Of a person: having been a long time in a post or occupation; senior.^[5]
4. Old-fashioned (anticuado), outdated; also as a noun, of a person.^[5][1]
5. (before the noun) former, one-time: mi antiguo jefe.^[17][16][1]

Noun

1. In colleges and other communities, a veteran (veterano) member.^[5]
2. (sculpture, painting) Each of the models, chiefly sculptures, left by Greek and Roman art.^[5]
3. (in the plural) The people of remote ages, the ancients.^[5][17]

Word family

• antigüedad
• antiguamente
• antiguar

Related words

• anciano
• antes
• anticuado
• anticuar
• antiquísimo
• antigualla
• anticuario
• Latin antīquus

Usage notes

The phrases a la antigua and a lo antiguo mean “in the old way”, and de antiguo “from long ago”.^[5] Moliner also records chapado a la antigua “old-fashioned in one's ways”.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 279
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. antiguo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. antiguo
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024)
10. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 39
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 186
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 309
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
16. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. antiguo
18. ^ 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
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)