centurión

Forms

centurión m (plural centuriones)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote çenturión; some early texts keep the Latin nominative Centurio as if it were the soldier's name.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin centuriō (genitive ⟨centuriōnis⟩), the commander of a century.^[3][1][4] The Latin noun is formed from centuria (“a division of a hundred”), from centum (“hundred”), which continues Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm.^[1][5] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of ciento, beside centuria, taken from the Latin noun and first recorded in Alonso de Palencia (1490).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first reliable records are the Old Spanish Gospels of the Escorial manuscript, of the mid-13th century, where the centurion of Capernaum answers Jesus: Sennor, non so digno que tu entres so el mio techo “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof”.^[2][8] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a 15th-century copy) has the plural çenturiones for the officers who lead a hundred men.^[2][9] Corominas dates the word only from Nebrija (1495).^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's Estoria de España the centuriones are explained as lords of a hundred horsemen.^[10] Nebrija glossed the Latin word in 1492 as capitan de ciento “captain of a hundred”, and gave the same equivalent for the Spanish word in his Spanish–Latin dictionary.^[11] In Mexico in 1589 the word was used for the native officials in charge of a hundred households.^[12] In Medieval Latin centurio had also come to mean a chief of a hundred and an estate steward.^[13] The word has kept its Roman sense in modern Spanish.^[3]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – çenturiones in the Libro de Alexandre (in a 15th-century copy).^[2]
• c. 1260 – centurion in the Old Spanish Gospel of Saint Matthew.^[2][8]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[10]
• 1293 – the Castigos explains the name as a lord of a hundred knights.^[2]
• 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary, the BDELC's first record.^[7][11]
• 1589 – used in Mexico for native officials.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives it from Latin centurio.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A centurion, the officer who commanded a centuria in the Roman army.^[3][5]

Word family

• centurionazgo

Related words

• centuria
• ciento

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. centurión
3. ^ a b c 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. centurión
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. centurión
5. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 129
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 67
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ciento
8. ^ 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. 673
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. centurión
10. ^ 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. centurión
11. ^ 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. centurión
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. centurión
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. centurio
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. vol. 2