atrición

Forms

atrición f (plural atriciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin attrītiō, a learned word; in Late Latin the noun meant “rubbing, friction”.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is formed from atterō (“to rub against, wear away”) with the suffix -tiō, and the verb from ad- and terō (“to rub”).^[1][4][5] In Medieval Latin the noun meant compunction, the sorrow for sin, and that is the sense of the first Spanish records.^[6][7]

The Latin verb goes back to *terh₁- (“to rub”); de Vaan compares τείρω (teírō, “to distress, wear out”) and τρίβω (tríbō, “to rub”).^[8] Corominas treats the word in the article triturar, beside contrición and contrito, from the same Latin verb.^[3] The same Latin noun is Portuguese atrição, Catalan atrició and Italian attrizione.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first certain record is in Juan del Encina's play on the Resurrection, of 1493, which asks for confession con contrición y atrición “with contrition and attrition”.^[7] DICCA-XV reports an earlier CORDE record of 1427–1428 and dates the word itself to 1492.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense came in through medicine at the same time: the 1495 Spanish Lilio de medicina of Gordonio speaks of a blackened nail from atrición o machucamiento “bruising or crushing”, and the 1498 surgery of Guy de Chauliac lists atriciones among wounds.^[7] The theologians of the 16th century set atrición, sorrow for sin out of fear, against contrición, sorrow out of love of God.^[7] The Academy long marked the word as obsolete and added a sense of veterinary medicine, the contraction of the main tendon of a horse's foreleg.^[13][14] The current dictionary adds the medical sense “wear from use or friction” and the military sense “wearing down of an enemy”, as in guerra de atrición.^[2]

Timeline

• 1493 – Juan del Encina writes con contrición y atrición.^[7]
• 1495 – the Spanish Lilio de medicina uses the word for a bruise.^[7]
• 1552 – Diego Núñez Alba contrasts atrición and contrición.^[7]
• 1683 – first record from the Americas, in New Granada: actos de atrición y de contrición.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy defines the theological sense and adds the veterinary one.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) Wear caused by use or friction (roce): atrición dental.^[2]
2. (military) attrition: the gradual weakening of an enemy by constant attack: guerra de atrición.^[2]
3. (Christianity) Sorrow for one's sins out of fear of divine punishment rather than love of God, as opposed to contrición.^[2][16]
4. (pathology) A bruise.^[1][7]
5. (veterinary medicine, obsolete) Contraction of the main tendon in the foreleg of a horse or mule.^[14][13]

Related words

• contrición
• contrito
• triturar
• Latin attrītiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. atrición
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. triturar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. atrición
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. atrição
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. atrició
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
12. ^ 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, p. s.v. atrición
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 108
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atrición
15. ^ 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. atrición
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. atrición