concesión

Forms

concesión f (plural concesiones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin concessiō (“a yielding; a grant”).^[2][3][1] Corominas lists it among the learned words related to ceder, beside conceder, concesionario and concesivo.^[3] That noun is formed from Latin concēdō (“to yield, grant”) + -tiō.^[4][1]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan concessió, French concession and Italian concessione; Portuguese concessão is semi-learned.^[5][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's first record is the plural concessiones in documents of Navarre of 1329.^[7] The CDH's earliest hits include a Latin privilege of 1331 and the charter of 1370 for the Moorish settlers of Chelva, with la dita donacion, establecimiento, concesion et poblacion “the said donation, settlement, grant and settling”.^[8] In Castilian prose it appears in Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria (1423), of the granting of an office by the king.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval documents the word means the granting of rights or property by a lord or king;^[8][9] Medieval Latin concessio was also the feudal lord's consent to the alienation of a fief.^[8][9] Nebrija (1492) rendered Latin concessio as el otorgamiento.^[10] The Academy added the rhetorical figure, in which the speaker grants an objection and still holds his opinion, in 1899.^[11]

Modern senses include the grant by the government of the right to use public property or run a public service, a firm's grant to another of the right to sell its products, and a yielding in one's position or attitude (sin concesiones “uncompromisingly”).^[2][12] In Mexico before 1910 concesiones were large tracts of land acquired under such grants, and in Puerto Rico the word names a refreshment stand in a cinema, after English concession.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1329 – concessiones in documents of Navarre.^[7]
• 1370 – the charter for the settlers of Chelva.^[8]
• 1423 – Villena's Arte cisoria.^[8]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin concessio as el otorgamiento.^[10]
• 1596 – the first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the rhetorical sense.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of granting; a grant or concession.^[2][1]
2. A yielding in an ideological position or an attitude: No hará ninguna concesión.^[2][12]
3. (law) A grant by the public administration to a person or firm of the private use of public property or the running of a public service, for a fixed time and under conditions.^[2]
4. (law) A firm's grant to another firm or a person of the right to sell and manage its products in another place; a dealership.^[2][1]
5. (philosophy, linguistics) The expression of a potential but ineffective obstacle to something, as in concessive clauses.^[2]
6. (rhetoric) A figure in which the speaker grants an objection, real or possible, and shows that the opinion still holds.^[2][11]

Word family

• concesionario
• concesivo

Related words

• conceder
• ceder
• Latin concessiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. concesión
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 12
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. concessiō
5. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. concessió
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. concessão
7. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. concesión
8. ^ 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. concesión
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. concessio
10. ^ 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. concesión
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 251
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concesión
13. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 283
14. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. concesión
15. ^ 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. concesión