aumentación

Forms

aumentación f (plural aumentaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin augmentātiō (“increase”), a learned word.^[2][1] The Latin noun is formed from augmentō (“to increase”) with the suffix -tiō; the verb comes from augmentum (“increase”), and that from augeō (“to increase”).^[1][3][4] DICCA-XV derives it instead from the Spanish verb aumentar.^[5]

That verb goes back to *h₂eug- (“to grow”).^[6] In Medieval Latin the noun meant an increase, also the improvement or added value of a property.^[7][8] The same Latin noun is French augmentation, and Echegaray adds Catalan aumentació and Italian aumentazione.^[1][9]

The early records keep the Latin ⟨g⟩, as in augmentacion.^[10] The spelling with ⟨au-⟩ alone appears in the 15th century, and aumento and the verb also had forms with ⟨augm-⟩ in that century.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records date from the 1370s to the 1390s: Juan Fernández de Heredia's Historia troyana (1376–1396) has evils that turn en augmentacion de mayor desondra “into an increase of greater dishonour”, and charters of 1385 grant houses en augmentacion del seruicio diuinal “for the increase of divine service”.^[10] DEMel's first record is a charter of 1393–1394 in the Calceatense diplomatic collection.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th and 16th centuries the word was the usual one for growth or increase, often of the faith or of the public good.^[10][12] Later aumento took this place, and the Academy marked aumentación “increase” as obsolete.^[13][2] It survives as a term of rhetoric for a kind of gradation in which the sense rises from less to more;^[2][9] Echegaray described it as a figure that raises the emphasis step by step.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia's Historia troyana has augmentacion.^[10]
• 1393–1394 – a charter of the Calceatense collection.^[11]
• 15th century – the spelling aumentaçión in a Castilian songbook.^[10]
• 1547 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy marks the sense “increase” as obsolete and gives the rhetorical sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) A kind of gradación in which the sense rises from less to more; climax.^[2][14]
2. (obsolete) Increase, augmentation (aumento).^[2][1]

Related words

• aumentar
• aumento
• Latin augmentātiō
• French augmentation

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. aumentación
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 413
5. ^ 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. aumentación
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ a b c Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 551
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aumentación
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. aumentación
12. ^ 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. aumentación
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 110
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aumentación