aspecto

Forms

aspecto m (plural aspectos)^[1] A form especto occurs in a late 14th-century text, and 16th-century documents from Mexico and Guatemala have aspeto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin aspectus (“the act of looking; sight, appearance”).^[4][5][1] The Latin noun was formed from aspiciō (“to look at, behold”) with the suffix of action nouns -tus, and the verb from ad- (“to, towards”) and speciō (“to see, observe”).^[6][1][7]

The same learned word is French aspect, Italian aspetto, Catalan aspecte and Portuguese aspecto;^[1][8][9] Portuguese also had a 14th-century aspeito, which Machado calls a divergent form.^[10][11] The Latin verb of seeing is the root of many other Spanish borrowings, among them espectáculo, especie, espectro and respecto.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record, from the Alfonsine Judizios de las estrellas (1254–1260), is the astrological sense: a planet que sea en su trino aspecto “that is in its trine aspect” to another.^[13][14] The general sense “look, appearance” is in the Crónica de 1344, of a girl who auja aspecto & senblante de ser buena muger “had the look and bearing of a good woman”.^[13] The BDELC dates the word only from the beginning of the 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th and 15th centuries it meant the presence or manner in which a person or thing appears to the eye, in Santillana and the Cancionero de Baena.^[15] Covarrubias in 1611 glossed it “the sight, the countenance” and listed aspecto venerable, airado, horrible, risueño.^[16] Autoridades described it as what a man's face shows to the eye, and listed the five astrological aspects: conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition.^[17] The Academy's 1770 edition added the orientation of a building towards the four cardinal points.^[18] Gaspar y Roig recorded it in 1853 as a point of view, a way of considering questions, the source of today's sense “facet, element”.^[19][5] The grammatical sense, the internal development of the verbal action, is the most recent.^[5][20]

In the Americas the word is first recorded in 1556, in Puebla, of a young man whose looks showed him to be under age.^[3]

Timeline

• 1254–1260 – the astrological sense in the Judizios de las estrellas.^[13][14]
• 1284–1295 – DEMel's earliest record in a primary source.^[2]
• 1344 – Crónica de 1344: “look, appearance”.^[13]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary renders aspectus as el acatamiento de mirar.^[21]
• 1556 – first record in the Americas, in Puebla.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: “the sight, the countenance”.^[16]
• 1770 – the Academy adds the orientation of a building.^[18]
• 1853 – Gaspar y Roig: “point of view”.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology “Del lat. aspectus”.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. appearance, look: the way people and things look: Tenía aspecto de no haber dormido.^[5][20][1]
2. aspect: an element, facet or shade of something: Hay aspectos del contrato que no me convencen.^[5][20]
3. The particular outlook of a building according to its orientation.^[5][20]
4. (astronomy, astrology) The relative position of two heavenly bodies by the celestial houses they occupy.^[5][17]
5. (grammar) The grammatical category that expresses the internal development of the action of a verb, as lasting, completed, repeated or momentary.^[5][20]

Word family

• aspectual

Related words

• especie
• espectáculo
• respecto
• Latin aspectus
• French aspect

Usage notes

Al primer aspecto or a primer aspecto “at first sight” is now obsolete.^[5][19] Tener buen (or mal) aspecto is said of a thing that looks in good or bad condition.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aspecto
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. aspecto
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aspect
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 450
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
11. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 327
12. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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. aspecto
15. ^ 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. 418
16. ^ 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. 232
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 367
19. ^ a b c d 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. 258
20. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
21. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 111