autoridad

Forms

autoridad f (plural autoridades)^[1] Medieval texts mostly write the word with a Latinising -ct- or -bt-: actoridat, auctoridat, abtoridad, octoridat, beside autoridat and autoridad.^[2] Abtoridad and auturidad are still found in 16th-century documents from the Americas.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin auctōritās (“guarantee; authority, prestige”), first recorded in Berceo in a Latinising spelling.^[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is formed on auctor (“creator, author; guarantor, seller”) with the suffix -tās, and its oldest sense was legal, “right of ownership, title”.^[7][1] It also meant the guarantee given by a seller or guardian, prestige and influence, and the weight of an opinion.^[8] In Medieval Latin the word also named a royal order, a papal mandate and a charter.^[9] The base noun is derived from augeō (“to increase, make grow”), from *h₂eug- (“to grow”).^[4][10]

The same Latin word is Portuguese autoridade, Galician autoridade, Catalan autoritat, French autorité and Italian autorità.^{[11][12][13][8]} The same base also gave the popular verb otorgar, through Vulgar Latin *auctoricare.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246, in an early 14th-century copy) the Mass names nobles santos de grant autoridad “noble saints of great dignity”.^[14] An older text, the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, known from a 14th-century copy), has actoritat in the same sense of rank or dignity: non só de tal denitat nin só de tal actoritat.^[14]

Semantic evolution

By the 13th century the word had its main senses: power, as in the Estoria de España’s con autoridad del senado; the power of a superior over those below him; the credit given to a person or a book; and a passage quoted in support of an argument.^[15] Berceo offers una auctoridad from Scripture to prove what he says.^[14] Covarrubias gave “esteem, gravity, eminence” and the written reason alleged to found an argument, the strongest being Scripture, the councils and the Fathers.^[16]

Autoridades also gave the sense “pomp, show”, and the Academy added in 1843 the person invested with a magistracy or high command.^[17][18] In 1855 Baralt condemned autoridades constituidas as a fashionable gallicism, and in 1884 the Academy defined the power that a constitution sets up to govern a people.^[19][20] In Puerto Rico autoridad also names some government agencies, after English authority.^[21]

Timeline

• 1189 – DEMel's earliest record, autoridat, in a document of Roncesvalles.^[2]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca has actoritat (in a 14th-century copy).^[14]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo has grant autoridad.^[14]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón cite la actoridat del sancto, the first record in a manuscript of its own date.^[14]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses autoridad for power and actoridat for a quoted passage.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin auctoritas.^[22]
• 1541 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla, as abturidad.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as esteem and as an alleged text.^[16]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the person invested with authority.^[18]
• 1855 – Baralt rejects autoridades constituidas.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin auctoritas.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. authority: the power that governs or commands, in fact or by right.^[6][1]
2. Power, faculty, legitimacy.^[6]
3. The prestige and credit given to a person or institution for its legitimacy or its competence in a field: habla con la autoridad de quien conoce el tema.^[6][1]
4. A person who holds authority of any kind; in the plural, the authorities: las autoridades locales.^[6][1]
5. A person accepted as an expert on a subject: es una autoridad en botánica.^[1][23]
6. (dated) Solemnity, pomp.^[6]
7. A text or passage of a book quoted in support of what one says.^[6]
8. (Puerto Rico) A government agency or department.^[21]

Word family

• antiautoridad
• autoritario
• autoritarismo

Related words

• autor
• autorizar
• otorgar
• Latin auctōritās
• French autorité

Usage notes

Pasado en autoridad de cosa juzgada is said in law of a final judgement, and figuratively of anything taken as settled.^[6][18] Abuso de autoridad is the abuse of one's power.^[6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, p. s.v. autoridad
3. ^ 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. abtoridad
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 416
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. autor
6. ^ 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. autoridad
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 67
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. autoridade
12. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. autoritat
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ 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. autoridad
15. ^ 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. autoridad
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. 248
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 490
18. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 81
19. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 107
20. ^ 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. 121
21. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. autoridad
22. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 299
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. autoridad