aquel

Forms

aquel (feminine aquella, masculine plural aquellos, feminine plural aquellas)^[1] The neuter is aquello, always a pronoun and without a plural.^[2][3] Old Spanish also had aquele, aquela, aquelo and aquell.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum ille, a compound of eccum (“here he is”), used as an emphatic particle, and Latin ille (“that”).^[7][8][9][1] Corominas derives it from the accusative *eccum illum, whose final ⟨-u⟩ was lost before the noun.^[7] He takes the particle to be a contraction of ecce (“behold”) and eum (“him”), already used in early colloquial Latin as a plain equivalent of the simple word; the OLD explains it as the same particle with a form of hic.^[7][10] Bénaben starts from *accu, with ad; the Tentative Dictionary also starts from such a form.^[11][5] The particle was needed because the plain Latin pronoun had weakened into the article el and the pronoun él.^[11][12]

The same compound is Portuguese aquele and Catalan aquell;^[13] Asturian and Aragonese have aquil, Aragonese also aquelle, and the Pyrenean dialects aquer.^[14][13] The same particle formed aqueste, aquese, aquí and acá.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The feminine plural aquellas is first found in a charter of 1135, and aquel in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[7][8] In the Cid it points to what is far off in space or time, and sometimes it is little more than an article: aquel día de cras “the next day”.^[5][15]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses it for what is far, in fact or in thought, from both speaker and hearer.^[16] Covarrubias in 1611 thought it taken from Tuscan quel.^[17] The Autoridades noted that, said with emphasis, it could point to the speaker himself: Yo aquél que en los passados tiempos canté ….^[18] The Academy's 1817 dictionary added the colloquial noun el aquel, standing for a thing one cannot or will not name, and by 1884 this was also “grace, charm”.^[19][20] From it Spanish made the verb aquellar, used when the right word does not come.^[7] In Asturian and Leonese aquel as a noun can also mean importance, pride or a hidden purpose.^[21][22]

Timeline

• 1135 – aquellas in a charter.^[7][8]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has aquel.^[7][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ille, illa, illud for aquel, aquella, aquello.^[23][24]
• 1611 – Covarrubias suggests a Tuscan origin.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy records the noun el aquel.^[19]
• 1886 – Cuervo writes the pronoun with an accent, aquél, and the determiner without.^[3]

Meanings

Determiner

1. that, those: far in space or time from both the speaker and the hearer; also after the noun: Aquellos veranos fueron los mejores.^[9][1]
2. The former: the first of two things mentioned, as opposed to este.^[9]
3. Without a specific reference, before a noun followed by a relative clause: aquellas personas que lo deseen.^[9]

Pronoun

1. That one, the one far from the speaker and the hearer; the neuter aquello refers to a thing or matter.^[9][1]
2. The former, as opposed to éste.^[9]
3. Before a relative clause: aquel que llegue primero.^[9]

Noun

1. (colloquial) An indefinable charm or appeal; in tener su aquel, also a hidden difficulty.^[9][20]

Word family

• aquello
• aquellar

Related words

• aqueste
• aquese
• el
• él
• Latin ille
• Portuguese aquele
• Catalan aquell

Usage notes

Aquél, with an accent, is an older spelling of the pronoun: Cuervo marked the pronoun with an accent to tell it from the determiner, and the Academy's 2001 dictionary still did so, while the neuter aquello never takes one.^[3][25][2] Wiktionary treats aquel as the pronoun's alternative spelling of aquél.^[1] After a noun with the article the word often sounds scornful: el tipo aquel.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aquel
3. ^ a b c Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 590
4. ^ 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, 135
5. ^ a b c d Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. s.v. aquel
6. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. aquel
7. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 305
8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aquel
9. ^ 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. aquel
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. aquel
12. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 353
13. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2395
14. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
15. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. aquel
16. ^ 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. aquel
17. ^ 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. 199
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, s.v. aquel
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 80
20. ^ 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. 90
21. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. aquel
22. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. aquel
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 32
24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 295
25. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. aquel
26. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. aquel