asesino

Forms

asesino (feminine asesina, masculine plural asesinos, feminine plural asesinas)^[1] Old and classical Spanish had many forms: assesino in the Partidas, anxixín about 1300 in the Gran conquista de Ultramar, asesigno in Juan Manuel (1330), asasino in Covarrubias, asesín in Correas (1627) and acecino in Rojas Zorrilla;^[1][2] Autoridades has assasino and assesino.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”), the name given to the followers of the Ismaili leader known as the Old Man of the Mountain (11th century), who, drunk on hashish, carried out bloody political killings.^[3][4][5] Corominas starts from the singular, “drinker of hashish”, a narcotic drink made from hemp leaves.^[3] Corriente explains the unusual rendering of the Arabic palatal sibilant by the spread of the word in the West during the Crusades through Latin transcriptions, and sees the medieval form with ⟨x⟩ as confirming the etymon.^[6][7] Wiktionary gives as an alternative أَسَاسِيُّون (ʔasāsiyyūn, “people faithful to the foundation of the faith”), and Bénaben notes that orientalists do not agree on the explanation.^[1][2]

The word reached Spain directly from the East with the Crusaders, but in the 16th century it was popular only in Italy, whence Italian assassino and its verb spread again to the other Romance languages; in 1535 Juan de Valdés named the verb, spelt ⟨assassinar⟩, among the Italian words he wished to adopt.^[3] The old native forms helped fix the modern Spanish shape, which was settled only in the 18th century.^[3][4] Moliner and Wikcionario also name the Italian route, and Wikcionario and the Academy (1899) name French assassin.^[8][9][10] Italian has assessino before 1290 and the present form at the end of the 13th century, and Nocentini derives it from Old French hassissin.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X, which Corominas dates 1256 and the DEMel 1256–1265.^[4][3][13] The Academy quoted their definition in 1770: „Asesinos son llamados una manera de omes desesperados é malos, que matan á los omes á traicion” “Assassins are a kind of desperate and wicked men who kill men by treachery”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 1770 dictionary the Academy defines the assassin as one who kills by treachery, and adds a metaphorical sense, someone who betrays the trust of a friend.^[10] From 1843 the definition adds “especially one paid by another”, and in 1899 the word became a noun of common gender, “a person who murders”.^[14][15] Gaspar y Roig recorded it as the name of a beauty spot that women once wore.^[16]

The DLE adds a figurative adjective, “hostile, hurtful”, as in a murderous look, which Moliner labels informal and humorous.^[5][8] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1576 in Mexico, spelt asisinos, for the Nahua hired killers.^[17] The derivatives are asesinar (1535, as assassinar) and asesinato (about 1700); the 17th century also used Italian asesinio.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1256 – the Siete Partidas have assesino.^[4][3]
• c. 1300 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar has anxixín.^[3]
• 1330 – Juan Manuel writes asesigno.^[3]
• 1535 – Juan de Valdés counts assassinar among the Italian words worth adopting.^[3]
• 1576 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[17]
• 1627 – Correas has the form asesín.^[3]
• c. 1700 – first record of asesinato.^[4]
• 1770 – the Academy defines the word and adds the sense “traitor”.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from French and Arabic and makes it a noun of common gender.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. murderous: that murders, or is used to murder: un veneno asesino.^[5][1]
2. (figurative) Hostile, hurtful: ojos asesinos.^[5][8]

Noun

1. A murderer or killer; an assassin: El asesino huyó por la ventana.^[5][1]
2. (dated) Traitor: one who betrays a friend's trust.^[10][1]

Word family

• asesinar
• asesinato

Related words

• hachís
• Italian assassino
• French assassin

Usage notes

Asesino a sueldo is a hired killer, and asesino en serie a serial killer.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. asesino
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 374
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asesino
5. ^ a b c d e 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. asesino
6. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 232
7. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. asesino
8. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asesino
9. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 357
11. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. assassino
12. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. assassino
13. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. asesino
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 72
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 100
16. ^ 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, 253
17. ^ 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, p. s.v. asesino