código

Forms

código m (plural códigos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin cōdex (“book”), applied above all to the Code of Justinian and later to other bodies of law.^[2][3][4] Corominas finds the ending in -o hard to explain from either the Latin nominative or the other cases, which Late Latin pronounced with /ɡ/; he suggests that it may be the genitive κώδικος (kṓdikos) of the Byzantine Greek borrowing κῶδιξ (kôdix), used in citing a law of Justinian's Code and spread from the law school of Bologna.^[2] The DLE derives it instead from Latin *codĭcus, a back-formation from cōdicillus (“codicil”), and Wiktionary from a Vulgar Latin *codicus.^[5][1]

The same word is Portuguese código and Old Italian codico of the 13th and 14th centuries;^[6] Corominas thinks Catalan codi, Old Occitan codi and even French code could be semi-learned forms of the same base.^[2][6] The learned doublet is códice “manuscript”, recorded from 1433.^[3][2]

The Latin word is a later form of caudex (“tree trunk; wooden tablets”), with the rustic /oː/ for /au/; de Vaan derives the older form from cauda (“tail”) and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *keh₂u-d- (“cleaved, separate”).^[7][1] The word passed from the wooden writing tablets to the book and then, by extension, to a code of laws.^[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in the Espéculo of Alfonso X (before 1260), which refers to the ninth law of the third book of the codigo, the Code of Justinian.^[9] The DEMel has an example from the Margarita de los pleitos of 1263.^[10] Corominas dated the word from Alonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario of 1490: despues theodosio augusto el menor dispuso el codigo de las constituciones “then Theodosius Augustus the younger arranged the code of the constitutions”.^[2][3][11]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the word names the Codes of Justinian and Theodosius, as in a deed of sale of 1408 citing el Libro Código of the laws ordained by Justinian.^[9] Nebrija glossed it codigo libro, Latin codex.^[11] A source of 1625 lists university chairs of código, the Code of Justinian, in the Americas.^[12] Terreros defined it as the compilation of imperial laws made by order of Justinian or Theodosius, and also of other civil or canonical collections.^[13]

Salvá noted in 1846 that the name was now applied by extension to compilations of laws on one matter, the civil, commercial or penal code.^[14] The Academy defined it in 1899 as a body of laws arranged on a methodical and systematic plan, and kept the old sense “codex”.^[15] Moliner and the DLE add a set of rules on any subject and a system of signs for forming messages, as in Morse code, the genetic code and the bar code.^[16][5] The DLE now also defines a combination of characters with a set value, such as the code of a credit card.^[5] Tagalog and Cebuano borrowed it as kodigo, and in the Philippines the Spanish word also means a crib sheet.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1260 – the Espéculo of Alfonso X cites the Code of Justinian as codigo.^[9]
• 1263 – the Margarita de los pleitos.^[10]
• 1374 – cobdecillo “codicil”, from the Latin diminutive, is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1433 – the learned doublet códice.^[3]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia;^[12] Corominas's date.^[2][3]
• 1625 – first record from the Americas.^[12]
• 1846 – Salvá records the civil, commercial and penal codes.^[14]
• 1884 – codificar enters the Academy's dictionary, from French codifier.^[2][3]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin codex.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A code of law: a systematic body of legal rules that regulates one matter as a whole, as in código civil or código penal.^[5][1]
2. A systematic compilation of various laws.^[5]
3. A combination of letters, numbers or other characters with a set value within a system: Escriba el código postal.^[5][16]
4. A system of signs and rules for forming and understanding secret messages; a cipher.^[5]
5. A set of rules or precepts on any subject: un código de conducta.^[5][16]
6. (obsolete) An old manuscript book, a codex.^[5]
7. (Philippines) A crib sheet used in an exam.^[1]

Related words

• códice
• codicilo
• codificar
• Latin cōdex
• English code

Usage notes

Set phrases include código de barras “bar code”, código genético “genetic code” and, in much of Latin America, código de área “area code”.^[5][16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 117
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. código
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 177
5. ^ 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. código
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. código
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. código
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. código
11. ^ 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. 712
12. ^ a b c 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. código
13. ^ 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, 452
14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 257
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 235
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. código
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. código