concejo

Forms

concejo m (plural concejos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote conceillo in the Glosas Silenses, then conceio, conzeio and concejo;^[2][3] Navarrese and Aragonese texts have concello and conceyllo.^[4][2][3] Asturian has conceyu.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish conceio, inherited from Latin concilium (“gathering, assembly”).^{[4][6][7][1][3]} The same Latin word was taken again by the learned route as concilio “church council”, first recorded in Alfonso X's code of laws of 1256–1263.^[4][2]

It is also Portuguese concelho, Galician concello, Asturian conceyu and Catalan concell.^[2][8][1] In Medieval Latin the word meant a church council, a count's court of justice and an assembly of the realm.^[9]

The Latin noun is formed from con- (“with, together”) and calō (“to announce, summon”);^[10][1] de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb.^[11] The noun's earliest sense in Latin was “debate”, the later ones “popular assembly, council”.^[11] The verb goes back to *kela- and *kelh₁- (“to call”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, have the form conceillo; the form concejo is first found in a charter of 1057.^[4][6] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) Boaz goes al conçeio de la villa “to the assembly of the town” to settle a marriage, and the Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) has a heading on conçeios contrariantes, councils that oppose each other.^[12] From the start the word meant both a meeting in general and the assembly of the neighbours of a town.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used it in phrases about publicity: en concejo and por concejo “in public, openly”, salir a concejo “to come out in public”, as Old Portuguese said em concelho.^[13][4][14] Alfonso X used it for a church council and for a piece of counsel, and Berceo once for a herd of beasts.^[14][13] In the 13th–15th centuries it was the town council of alcalde and aldermen, as the Siete Partidas have it.^[15]

Covarrubias (1611) derived it from Latin concio and recorded the proverb tresquilenme en concejo y no lo sepan en mi casa “let them shear me in the town meeting, as long as my family does not hear of it”, said of people careless of public disgrace.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) gave the council and its house, the concejo abierto called by the bell for all who wished to attend, and the same proverb.^[17] The Academy's 1780 edition added the district made up of scattered parishes in Asturias and the mountains of León,^[18] later extended to Galicia (1899), when it also added a session of the council and the Concejo de la Mesta of the sheep owners.^[19] Cervantes uses the proverb pon lo tuyo en concejo, on the variety of opinions.^[20]

The first record from the Americas is from Nicaragua in 1529.^[21] In Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay the concejo deliberante is the town council presided over by an intendente.^[22] In Asturias conceyu is still the neighbours' meeting called by the bell and the municipality.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – conceillo in the Glosas Silenses.^[4][6]
• 1057 – concejo in a charter.^[4]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses it for the assembly of a town, in a 13th-century copy.^[12]
• 1256–1263 – the Siete Partidas have it for the town council, and the learned doublet concilio.^[15][4]
• 1362 – the derivative concellal, the later concejal, in an Asturian document.^[4]
• 1529 – the first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb tresquilenme en concejo.^[16]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the concejo abierto.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the session of a council and the Concejo de la Mesta.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. The town hall, the building of a municipal council.^[7]
2. A town council, the corporation of the mayor and councillors; ayuntamiento.^[7][1]
3. A municipality (municipio); in Asturias, the usual name of a municipality.^[7][1]
4. A session held by the members of a council: El concejo de hoy duró tres horas.^[7][23]
5. (Basque Country, Navarre) A subdivision of some municipalities, made up of small villages.^[1]
6. (regional) A foundling; concejil.^[7]

Word family

• concejal
• concejil
• concejalía

Related words

• concilio
• conciliar
• Latin concilium
• Portuguese concelho

Usage notes

A concejo abierto is a meeting to which all the neighbours of a village are called.^[7] The Concejo de la Mesta was the yearly assembly of shepherds and sheep owners.^[7][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. concejo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 166
5. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. conceyu
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concejo
7. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. concejo
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 923
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
13. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 128
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ 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. 743
16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 496
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 470
18. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. concejo
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 250
20. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 300
21. ^ 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. concejo
22. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. concejo
23. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concejo