anunciar

Forms

anunciar (first-person singular present anuncio, first-person singular preterite anuncié, past participle anunciado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote anunciar, annunciar and anunçiar.^[2][3] Autoridades notes that the verb and its derivatives were once spelt with ⟨nn⟩.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin annūntiō (“to announce”).^[5][6][1][7] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and nūntiō (“to bring word”), from nūntius (“messenger”).^[7][8][9] It is post-Augustan and mostly ecclesiastical, very frequent in the Vulgate.^[10] In Medieval Latin it also meant to foretell, to reveal and to preach the Gospel.^[11]

The same verb is Portuguese anunciar, recorded from the 14th century, and French annoncer, which developed by inheritance from 1080.^[12][13] De Vaan reconstructs the Latin noun as Proto-Italic *nountio-, of unclear origin; some derive it from a root meaning “to cry”, others from the adjective for “new”, but the latter does not work morphologically.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the verb 1240.^[5] In the Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250, in a 14th-century copy), when the moon changes sign a ellos annunçia que lles uien grant pesar “it announces to them that great grief is coming to them”.^[2] The Escorial Bible (before 1260) has muerte del Sennor annunciades, fasta que uenga “you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes”.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already used it for both giving news and foretelling, as in the General estoria of 1280.^[15] Covarrubias in 1611 says that in common use it meant predicting a bad outcome for someone from his conduct, while strictly it meant carrying a message; the Anunciación is Gabriel's message to Mary.^[16] Autoridades gives carrying messages and foretelling good or bad events, quoting the Celestina: Maldicen los gallos, porque anuncian el día “they curse the cocks because they announce the day”.^[4] The Academy's dictionary of 1770 notes that the strict sense, giving the first news of something, was little used.^[17] Terreros found it affected for small errands, where avisar was better.^[18]

Gaspar y Roig in 1853 record putting up notices and making something known to the public, and the reflexive use for announcing oneself.^[19] Cuervo took the senses of public notice and announcing a visitor to be copied from French;^[20] Román thought they came rather from the Latin of the Vulgate.^[20] The DLE adds advertising.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has annunçia.^[2][5]
• before 1260 – the Escorial Bible has annunciades.^[2]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for “to foretell”.^[15]
• 1499 – the Celestina has anuncian el día.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias distinguishes the common and the strict sense.^[16]
• 1625 – first record in the Americas.^[22]
• 1853 – Gaspar y Roig record the sense “to put up notices”.^[19]
• 1917 – Alemany records announcing a visitor.^[23]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To announce, make known, proclaim.^[6][1]
2. (transitive) To foretell; to be a sign of: Las nubes negras anuncian granizo.^[6][24]
3. (transitive) To announce a visitor's name to the person who is to receive him.^[6]
4. (transitive) To advertise.^[6][1]
5. (reflexive) To be imminent, to begin to show: Ya se anuncia el otoño.^[1][24]
6. (reflexive) To advertise oneself; to announce oneself.^[1][24]

Word family

• anunciamiento
• anunciante
• anuncio

Related words

• anunciación
• anunciador
• nuncio
• denunciar
• enunciar
• pronunciar
• renunciar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. anunciar
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. anunciar
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 314
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nuncio
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. anunciar
7. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. anunciar
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 73
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. annuntio
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. annuntiare
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 286
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. annoncer
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. anunciar
15. ^ a b 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), p. s.v. anunciar
16. ^ 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. 187
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 261
18. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 120
19. ^ a b Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 182
20. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 68
21. ^ 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. 321
22. ^ 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. anunciar
23. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 139
24. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. anunciar