asesor

Forms

asesor m (plural asesores, feminine asesora, feminine plural asesoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin assessor (“one who sits beside; assistant, adviser”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed on the participle of assideō (“to sit beside”), itself made of ad- and sedeō (“to sit”).^[2][5][1] French borrowed the same word in the 13th century as French assesseur.^[6]

The dictionaries date it very differently: the DCECH to 1592, the BDELC to 1495 and the DTME to 1331.^[2][3][7] The DEMel has an earlier record of 1279.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest primary record of asesor is a document of 1279 from the Longares charter collection, and its vocabulary of the Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) also lists the word.^[8] The Cancionero de Baena (c. 1370–1424) spells it açessor.^[8] From the start it was a legal word: Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as the man who sits together with the judge to try and sentence certain cases.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's 1770 dictionary defined it as the lawyer who sits with a lay judge to rule and pass sentence, and its 1843 edition added the wider sense “one who gives another advice”.^[10][11] In 1884 the Academy gave the etymology and, by extension, made the word an adjective for anyone who advises another with his opinion.^[12] Today it is chiefly a professional adviser, a consultant, as in asesor fiscal “tax adviser”.^[13][14] The verb asesorar is recorded from 1770 in the BDELC but only from about 1800 in the DCECH, and asesoría from 1620.^[3][2] In Chile asesor del hogar is a euphemism for a domestic employee.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the DEMel's vocabulary of the Vidal Mayor lists the word.^[8]
• 1279 – a document of the Longares charter collection has asesor.^[8]
• 1495 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[3]
• 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua: açesor.^[16]
• 1592 – the DCECH's date of first record.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the judge's legal assistant.^[9]
• 1620 – first record of asesoría.^[3]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the general sense “adviser”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin assessor.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An adviser or consultant: a person who informs and advises another or an organisation on matters in his field: La empresa contrató a una asesora de comunicación.^[4][14][1]
2. (law) A lawyer whose office is to advise a lay judge with his opinion.^[4]
3. (Chile, euphemistic) asesor del hogar, asesora del hogar: a domestic employee.^[15]

Adjective

1. Advising, advisory: un comité asesor.^[4][13]

Word family

• asesorar
• asesoramiento
• asesoría

Related words

• Latin assessor
• French assesseur

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 375
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asesor
4. ^ a b c d 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. asesor
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. asesor
8. ^ a b c d e Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. asesor
9. ^ 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. 233
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 357
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 72
12. ^ 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. 108
13. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. asesor
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asesor
15. ^ 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. asesor
16. ^ 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. asesor