base

Forms

base f (plural bases)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin basis (“base, pedestal, foundation”), which is from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “step; that on which one stands, base”).^[2][3][4][1] The Greek word is a noun of βαίνω (baínō, “to walk, step”);^[1][5][6] Wiktionary traces it through *gʷə́tis to *gʷémtis, from the root *gʷem- (“to step, come”), the root of Latin veniō (“to come”).^[1][5][6]

Corominas dates the word only from 1709 and says that until the 17th century Spanish used the form basa for all its modern senses; the Latinising form appeared first as a term of mathematics and physics and gradually took over, leaving the older one with the sense “base of a column or statue”.^[2][3] Between the 16th and 18th centuries the unadapted Latin form was also used in Spanish.^[2] The corpus of the Academy and the dictionary of Alfonso X's prose, however, have the plural bases for the base of a column in Alfonso X's General Estoria of about 1275.^[7][8][9] The cognate French base is recorded from about 1160.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the General Estoria (c. 1275), Alfonso X's translation of the description of the Tabernacle, the boards stand on bases with sockets: E fiziéronles en los assentamientos de los bases a cada tabla dos logares fechos como quiciales “and in the seats of the bases they made two places like sockets for each board”.^[7][8] The DPCAX already gives the two senses “main foundation or support” and “base of a column or statue”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare until the 18th century, when Corominas finds it established as a technical term.^[2] The Autoridades (1726) treats it as a term of geometry, the line or surface on which a figure rests, and adds terms of optics and statics.^[10] In the Academy's 1817 dictionary it is still marked as a term of mathematics.^[11] Records from Lima of 1791 use it for the base of a triangle and, in chemistry, for the base of sea salt.^[12]

Since then the word has spread to almost every field: the foundation or main support of anything, a military base, the rank and file that a leader represents, the rules of a competition, a base in baseball, and technical senses in grammar, economics, chemistry and mathematics.^[4][1] The verb basar “to base” followed in 1873.^[3][2] In several countries of the Americas base also means a perm, the artificial waving of the hair, and in Ecuador and Bolivia a crude cocaine paste.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses bases for the bases of the Tabernacle.^[7][8]
• 1453–1467 – Alfonso de Toledo's Invencionario has columns with bases de plata.^[7]
• 1490 – Palencia's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin bases.^[7]
• 1709 – the date Corominas gives for the first record of base.^[2][3]
• 1726 – the Autoridades defines it as a term of geometry.^[10]
• 1791 – in Lima, the base of a triangle and a chemical base.^[12]
• 1873 – first record of the verb basar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. foundation, basis: the main support of something.^[4][1]
2. (also in the plural) The people represented by a leader, delegate or spokesperson; the rank and file.^[4]
3. A place where people and equipment are gathered to set out on expeditions or campaigns; a military base.^[4][1]
4. (chiefly in the plural) Each of the rules governing a competition, a draw or an official procedure: Lee bien las bases antes de presentarte.^[4][9]
5. (baseball) Each of the four corners of the field that the players defend.^[4][1][13]
6. (architecture) The base of a column.^[4]
7. (geometry) The side or face from which the height of a figure or solid is measured.^[4][10]
8. (chemistry) A substance that combines with acids to form salts.^[4][9]
9. (mathematics) The number on which a system of logarithms or of numeration is built.^[4][1]
10. (grammar) The part of a word to which a derivational or inflectional process applies.^[4]
11. (Mexico, Central America, Southern Cone) A perm.^[13]

Word family

• basar
• basamento

Related words

• basal
• básico
• basa
• Latin basis
• Ancient Greek βάσις (básis)

Usage notes

Basa, the older form, now survives mainly for the base of a column or statue.^[2][3][4] Set phrases include a base de “by means of, consisting mainly of” and base de datos “database”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 536
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. base
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. base
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. base
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. base
8. ^ a b c d 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. base
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. base
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 568
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 122
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. base
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. base