argumento

Forms

argumento m (plural argumentos)^[1] The Libro de Alexandre also has the form argumente, which Corominas puts down to Gallo-Romance influence.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin argūmentum (“proof, argument”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Autoridades called it a word of the schools, “purely Latin”, that had spread to every science.^[5] This noun is formed from Latin arguō (“to prove, make clear”) + -mentum.^[6][1]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Portuguese argumento, Catalan argument, French argument and Italian argomento.^[7][8][1]

De Vaan takes arguō as a verb “to make bright, make clear” formed from an adjective Proto-Italic *argu- (“bright”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ-u- (“white”), the root of Ancient Greek ἄργυρος (árguros, “silver”) and Sanskrit अर्जुन (árjuna, “white, light”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a copy of the early 15th century) has the young Alexander boast of his skill in logic: Bien sé los argumentos de lógica formar “I well know how to form the arguments of logic”.^[10][11] Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora, known only from an 18th-century copy, may be a little earlier.^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant a line of reasoning, but also the subject of a book and, in the Libro de Apolonio, a riddle.^[12] Alfonso X's astronomical works use it for the quantity on which a planet's motion depends, a sense Gaspar y Roig still lists in the 19th century.^[13][14]

Autoridades (1726) defined it as the reason with which another's opinion is attacked according to the rules of dialectic, and recorded two further senses: the subject of a book, as in “the argument of the Iliad”, and, in jest, a person who argues well.^[5] The Academy added the summary placed at the head of a book or canto in 1817, and in 1884 replaced the old scholastic definition with one close to today's.^[15][16] The modern dictionary also gives the plot of a novel or film and, in grammar, each participant required by a predicate.^[4]

In the Spanish of the United States and Puerto Rico argumento also means “quarrel, dispute”, under the influence of English argument.^[17][18][19]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre speaks of the arguments of logic.^[10][2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Libro de las cruzes uses the form argumente in astronomy.^[13]
• c. 1250–1260 – the Fuero Juzgo has the word in a copy of its own time.^[10]
• early 15th century – the verb argumentar first appears.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin argumentum for argumento breve.^[20]
• 1545 – the first record from the Americas, in Honduras.^[21]
• 1726 – Autoridades calls it a word of the schools and purely Latin.^[5]
• 1817 – the Academy records apretar el argumento and desatar el argumento.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An argument: a line of reasoning (razonamiento) used to prove a proposition or to convince someone.^[4][1]
2. The plot of a literary work or a film: La novela tiene un argumento enrevesado.^[4][1]
3. A summary (resumen) of the subject of a literary work or film, or of each of its parts.^[4][22]
4. (grammar) Each of the participants selected by a predicate, as opposed to an adjunct.^[4]
5. (rare) A sign or indication (indicio).^[4][22]
6. (United States) A quarrel, a dispute.^[17][18]

Word family

• argumental
• argumentario
• argumentista

Related words

• argüir
• argumentar
• argumentativo
• argumentación
• argucia
• Latin argūmentum

Usage notes

Logic has named several kinds since the 19th century: argumento ad hominem, argumento a contrariis and argumento a pari or a simili.^[23][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 330
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. argüir
4. ^ 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. argumento
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 388
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. argūmentum
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. argumento
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. argument
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. arguō
10. ^ 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, p. s.v. argumento
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. 375
12. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 48
13. ^ 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. argumento
14. ^ 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, 221
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 85
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 96
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. argumento
18. ^ a b Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 39
19. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. argumento
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 296
21. ^ 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. argumento
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. argumento
23. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 96