central

Forms

central m or f (masculine and feminine plural centrales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin centrālis (“situated in the centre”), from centrum (“centre”) with the suffix -ālis.^[2][1][3] The DCECH lists it among the derivatives of centro, and DICCA-XV treats it as one.^[4][5] Pliny uses the Latin adjective of the earth placed in the middle.^[3][6]

The Latin noun is taken from Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron, “sharp point, goad”); it came to mean “centre” through “the fixed leg of a pair of compasses”, compared to a goad, and then “the point where this leg is fixed”.^[4][3][1]

The same adjective is French central, Italian centrale, Catalan central and Portuguese central.^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Villena's Los doce trabajos (1417) speaks of a central punto where philosophy and all the arts and sciences are shown.^[9][5] The CDH's hits of 1315 are only the heading Columna Central in the edition of royal charters, not the word in the text.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades has the adjective “belonging to the centre” and an alchemists' noun, el central, “the spirit of the centre, or what is inside it”.^[11] Terreros quotes the phrases eclipse central, fuerza central and fuego central.^[12] Salvá in 1846 records the noun for a member of the Junta Central, and a text from Bogotá of 1809 already calls a junta of delegates la central.^[13][14]

Alemany in 1917 recorded the feminine noun for the station where an electrical network is centred.^[15] In the Caribbean central became the large sugar mill: Malaret in 1946 gives it as masculine in the Antilles and Peru and feminine in Puerto Rico, and the DLE has it as masculine in Cuba and feminine in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.^[16][2][17] In Cuba el Central is also the train that crosses the island from Havana to Santiago.^[18] Modern Spanish uses the feminine for a headquarters, a telephone exchange and a power station, and the masculine for a centre-back in football.^[2][19]

Timeline

• 1413 – the date Segura Munguía gives.^[20]
• 1417 – Villena's Los doce trabajos.^[9][5]
• 1591 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades has the adjective and an alchemists' noun.^[11]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records fuerza central and fuego central.^[12]
• 1809 – la central for the Junta Central, in Bogotá.^[14]
• 1846 – Salvá records the noun for a member of the Junta Central.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin centralis.^[21]
• 1917 – Alemany records the electrical central.^[15]
• 1946 – Malaret records the sugar mill of the Antilles and Peru.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the centre.^[2][1]
2. Situated in the physical centre; also figurative: el patio central del colegio.^[2][19]
3. Of a place: lying between two extremes, as in América Central.^[2]
4. Acting over a whole field or territory: gobierno central, calefacción central “central heating”.^[2][19]
5. essential, fundamental: el argumento central del libro.^[2]
6. Of organisations and installations: main, principal: oficina central.^[2]
7. (phonetics) Of a sound: articulated in the centre of the mouth: vocal central.^[2]

Noun

1. (feminine) The headquarters or main office of an organisation; a central exchange: Llamé a la central del banco.^[2][19]
2. (feminine) A power station: central nuclear, central térmica.^[2][1]
3. (Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela: feminine, Cuba: masculine) A sugar mill.^[2][17][1]
4. (sports, masculine or feminine) A centre-back.^[2][1]

Word family

• centralismo
• centralista
• centralizar
• centralización

Related words

• centro
• céntrico
• Latin centrālis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. central
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 36
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. central
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 272
12. ^ a b 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, 397
13. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 367
16. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 232
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
18. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 130
19. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
20. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 234