clientela

Forms

clientela f (plural clientelas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin clientēla (“clientship; a body of clients”).^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it under cliente and dates it to the second half of the 16th century, citing Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas around 1600.^[4][3]

The Latin noun is formed from cliēns (“client, dependant”) with the suffix -ēla.^[5][1] De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *ḱli-ent- (“one who leans”), originally an active participle of the root aorist *ḱlei- (“to lean”).^[6] Wiktionary also mentions an alteration of cluēns, the participle of clueō (“to be called, be esteemed”), as a possibility.^[1]

The same Latin word gave French clientèle, Italian clientela and Catalan clientela.^[7] It also passed into English clientele and German Klientel.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hits, in Palencia's Universal vocabulario (1490) and Nebrija's dictionary (1495), give clientela only as the Latin word being explained.^[9] Its first use as a Spanish word is in Juan de Pineda's Diálogos familiares de la agricultura cristiana (1589): mas yo me ofrezco de nuevo por de vuestra clientela “but I offer myself again as one of your dependants”.^[9] The sense is the Roman one: the circle of people under a patron's protection.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the protection and favour that princes and lords give to their subjects or followers.^[10] It added that the word was purely Latin and little used in Castilian, quoting Sánchez de las Brozas.^[10] Terreros glossed it as “safeguard”.^[11] The Academy kept the sense of protection in 1817 and 1843.^[12][13]

The modern sense appears in Salvá's dictionary of 1846, which adds “the body of clients”.^[14] Gaspar y Roig relate it especially to a lawyer's clients.^[15] The Academy's 1869 edition extended it to the people protected by a powerful man, the litigants who use the same lawyer and the patients of the same doctor.^[16] In 1831 Larra already wrote of un abogado sin clientela “a lawyer without clients”.^[9] By 1899 the definition was simply the body of a person's clients.^[17] Today it also covers the customers of a shop or business.^[2][18]

In politics it names people who support a leader or party in return for favours.^[19] In Mexico it names the supporters a party wins with the benefits it promises.^[20] From this use comes clientelismo, politics based on clienteles.^[8]

Timeline

• 1490 – Palencia's Universal vocabulario explains the Latin word clientela.^[9]
• 1589 – first use in a Spanish text, in Juan de Pineda's Diálogos familiares.^[9]
• c. 1600 – used by Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas, the record Corominas gives.^[4]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a purely Latin word little used in Castilian.^[10]
• 1840 – first records in the Americas, in Venezuela and Chile.^[21]
• 1846 – Salvá adds the sense “the body of clients”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin clientela.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. The body of clients (clientes) or customers of a professional, a shop or a business: La tienda perdió mucha clientela con la obra de la calle.^[2][18]
2. The relationship between a client and his patron (patrono); patronage, protection.^[18][17]
3. (politics) The people who support a leader or party in return for favours or benefits.^[19][20]

Word family

• clientelismo

Related words

• cliente
• Latin cliens
• French clientèle

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. clientela
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cliente
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 100
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. clientēla
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cliēns
7. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 274
8. ^ 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. 146
9. ^ 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. clientela
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 381
11. ^ 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. 4, 50
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 206
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 167
14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 253
15. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 579
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 179
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 232
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. clientela
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. clientela
20. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. clientela
21. ^ 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. clientela
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 249