ardiente

Forms

ardiente m or f (masculine and feminine plural ardientes)^[1] Old Spanish also used the shortened form ardient.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ardens (“burning”), the present participle of ardeō (“to burn”).^[1][5] In Spanish it was the old present participle of arder “to burn”.^[6][7] The DLE describes it as arder with the suffix -nte and gives the Latin participle beside it.^[8] The same participle is Catalan ardent and Italian ardente.^[9]

Wiktionary derives the verb from āridus (“dry”) with the stative suffix -eō, comparing audeō beside avidus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in Almerich's Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in the form ardient: the glory of the Lord was seen como fuego ardient, en cabo del mont “like a burning fire on the top of the mountain”.^[2] The Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215) already has the full form, el fuego ardiente.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses are as old as the literal one: in Alfonso X's Juzgamientos (1254) a man may be ardient en su coraçon “ardent in his heart”, and the same text speaks of an ardiente conplexion.^[3] Berceo's infiernos ardientes are burning hells, and the Tentative Dictionary records his sense “fervent”.^[10][11] Medical texts of the 15th century used it of what causes a burning sensation, as fevers.^[12] The BDELC dates the word only 1438.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave three senses: “burning”, “that burns or heats, as spirit called agua ardiente”, and figuratively “fervent, active”.^[14] Domínguez in 1846 added a nautical sense, of a ship that tends to turn into the wind.^[15] The Academy added “causing a burning sensation” and the poetic “fiery red” in 1884.^[16] In Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay it also means “lustful”.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – first record, as ardient, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[2]
• c. 1215 – fuego ardiente in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Juzgamientos uses it of a fervent heart.^[3]
• 1493 – a surgical text speaks of calenturas ardientes, burning fevers.^[12]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades mentions the spirit called agua ardiente.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the senses “causing burning” and “fiery red”.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Burning, on fire.^[8][1]
2. Causing a burning sensation, or seeming to burn, as sed ardiente and fiebre ardiente.^[8]
3. Fervent, active, effective.^[8]
4. Passionate, fiery, vehement: Era una ardiente defensora de los animales.^[8][19][1]
5. Of a warm colour: very intense.^[8]
6. Of a fiery colour.^[8][19]
7. (Latin America) Of a person: lustful.^[17][19]
8. (nautical) Of a ship: tending to turn into the wind against the rudder.^[15][20]

Word family

• aguardiente
• ardientemente

Related words

• arder
• ardor
• ardoroso
• Latin ardens

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ardiente
3. ^ 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), p. s.v. ardiente
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ardiente
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ardens
6. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ardiente
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 318
8. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ardiente
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 55
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. ardiente
11. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 47
12. ^ a b 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. 370
13. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arder
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 382
15. ^ 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. 163
16. ^ 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. 94
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. ardiente
18. ^ 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. ardiente
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ardiente
20. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. ardiente