ausencia

Forms

ausencia f (plural ausencias)^[1]

Etymology

It is a semi-learned borrowed from Latin absentia (“absence”).^[1][2][3][4] Corominas dates the older form Old Spanish absencia to about 1300 and the present spelling to Nebrija.^[3] Autoridades noted in 1726 that the older language kept the ⟨b⟩ of the Latin word, and that usage had turned it into ⟨u⟩.^[5]

The Latin noun is formed from absēns (“absent”), the present participle of absum (“to be away”), with the suffix -ia; the verb is made of ab (“from, away”) and sum (“to be”).^[1][6][7] The same learned word is Portuguese ausência, which Nascentes also calls semi-learned, with the same change of ⟨b⟩ to ⟨u⟩, French absence and Italian assenza.^[8][9][10] Meyer-Lübke traces to the Latin noun some Romance words for “without”: Italian senza, Old Occitan sensa and Old French sanz.^[11] García de Diego adds Catalan sens, and allows that sine (“without”) may have merged with it.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the form absencia in the Gran Conquista de Ultramar of about 1300.^[3][4] A charter of 1305 in the CDH has the same sense: ponemos veedores sobre el pescado de mar en uuestra absençia “we set inspectors over the sea fish in your absence”.^[13] The form ausencia is in Nebrija's dictionary (c. 1495), and in the Amadís (c. 1496) for a person's being away: Tanto dolor me puso su ausencia en mi corazón “his absence put such grief in my heart”.^[14][15]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, being away from a place, is still the main one.^[2] Autoridades (1726) quotes the proverb ausencia, enemiga de amor; cuan lejos de ojos, tan lejos de corazón “absence is the enemy of love: out of sight, out of mind”, and the phrase ausencias y enfermedades, for a post held in place of an absent or sick office-holder.^[5] In 1770 the Academy recorded tener buenas o malas ausencias “to be well or badly spoken of when absent”, which later editions turned into the noun phrase buenas or malas ausencias.^[16][17][2]

The sense “lack, want of something” is in Domínguez's dictionary of 1846.^[18] The Academy's dictionary of 2001 lists legal, medical and psychological senses: the legal status of a person whose whereabouts are unknown, a brief loss of consciousness, and absent-mindedness.^[19] In medicine an ausencia is now chiefly a kind of epileptic seizure.^[20][1] The colloquial brillar por su ausencia “to be conspicuous by its absence” is said of something missing where it should be.^[1][21]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – the Gran Conquista de Ultramar has the form absencia.^[3][4]
• 1305 – a charter has absençia.^[13]
• 1491 – the first text with the form ausencia in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[22]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: Ausencia. absentia.^[14]
• c. 1496 – the Amadís de Gaula uses ausencia.^[15]
• 1539 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[23]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the proverb ausencia, enemiga de amor and the change of ⟨b⟩ to ⟨u⟩.^[5]
• 1770 – the Academy records tener buenas o malas ausencias.^[16]
• 1846 – Domínguez adds the sense “lack”.^[18]
• 2001 – the Academy lists the legal, medical and psychological senses.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. absence: the act or state of being away: Su ausencia de la reunión sorprendió a todos.^[2][1]
2. The time during which someone is away.^[2]
3. A lack or want of something: la ausencia de pruebas.^[2][21]
4. (law) The legal status of a person whose whereabouts are unknown.^[2]
5. (medicine) A brief, sudden loss of consciousness; an absence seizure.^[2][1][20]
6. (psychology) absent-mindedness, a mind elsewhere than the situation at hand.^[2][21]

Related words

• ausentar
• ausente
• absentismo
• Latin absentia
• Portuguese ausência

Usage notes

Buenas ausencias is praise or good news of someone absent, malas ausencias the opposite.^[2] En ausencia de means “in the absence of”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ausencia
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 414
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ausente
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 487
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. absentia
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ausência
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 415
10. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 190
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 37
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ausencia
14. ^ a b 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. ausencia
15. ^ a b 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. 449
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 395
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 110
18. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 206
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ausencia
20. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. ausencia
21. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ausencia
22. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. ausencia
23. ^ 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. absencia