comunión

Forms

comunión f (plural comuniones)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write comunjon.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commūniō (“community; communion”), a learned word.^[4][5][6][1] García de Diego sets the Spanish learned form beside the popular Galician comuñón.^[7] The noun comes from Latin commūnis (“common”), as does commūnicō, the source of comulgar, and its ecclesiastical senses are Late Latin.^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese comunhão, Catalan comunió, French communion and Italian comunione.^[1] The Latin adjective is formed from con- and mūnis, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange”), and the same formation is Proto-Germanic *gamainiz.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1107, in the senses “sacrament” and “community”.^[4][5] Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa, of about 1237, uses it for receiving the Eucharist: non más que si quisiesse rescivir comunión, “no more than if he wished to receive communion”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the legal texts of Alfonso X list comunión as the fourth of the seven sacraments.^[10][2] The general sense “sharing, participation in what is common” is recorded in the Diccionario de Autoridades from Saint Teresa, beside “familiar dealings”.^[11] The Academy's 1884 dictionary also lists a congregation of people of the same faith and a political party.^[12] The DLE now marks the political sense as rare and limited to Spain.^[6]

Today the word names the sacrament and the act of receiving it, the part of the Mass in which the faithful receive it, and in general a deep union of feelings or ideas.^[13][14] A child's primera comunión is both the first reception of the sacrament and the family celebration that goes with it.^[6]

Timeline

• 1107 – the first record in Corominas, for the sacrament and for a community.^[4][5]
• c. 1237 – Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa (in a copy of the early 14th century).^[9][2]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida names it the fourth sacrament.^[2]
• before 1260 – the Espéculo has comunjon in a manuscript of its own time.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin communio.^[15]
• 1548 – the first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a word taken from the Latin communio.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary lists the religious congregation and the political party.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Participation in what is common, sharing: Había entre ellos una comunión de ideas.^[6][13]
2. Familiar dealings, close communication between people.^[6]
3. (Christianity) The act of receiving the Eucharist.^[6][1]
4. (Christianity) The sacrament of the Eucharist, Communion.^[6][1]
5. A congregation of people who profess the same faith.^[6]
6. (Spain, rare) A political group or party.^[6]

Word family

• excomunión
• poscomunión

Related words

• comulgar
• común
• comunidad
• Latin commūniō

Usage notes

Set phrases are primera comunión, a child's first Communion, and comunión de los santos, the sharing of spiritual goods among all the faithful as members of one body.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. comunión
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. comunión
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 163
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comulgar
6. ^ 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. comunión
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. communio
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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, p. 741
10. ^ 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. comunión
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. comunión
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 269
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comunión
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. comunión
15. ^ 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. comunión
16. ^ 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. comunión