conciencia

Forms

conciencia f (plural conciencias)^[1] Old Spanish texts spell it conciencia, conçiencia, conciençia and, closer to Latin, consciencia.^[2] A form congencia occurs at the end of the 14th century in Pedro de Veragüe.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnscientia (“knowledge, consciousness”), a learned word like the rest of the family of ciencia.^[3][4][1] The DLE and Wikcionario add that the Latin noun is a calque of Ancient Greek συνείδησις (suneídēsis).^[5][6]

The Latin word is formed from cōnsciēns, the present participle of cōnsciō (“to know together, be aware”), with the suffix -ia.^[3][7][1] The verb is con- added to sciō (“to know”).^[7] Its first sense was knowledge shared with someone else; the sense of knowledge of oneself, and with it the moral sense, came later.^[8][9]

Beside it Spanish has consciencia, a spelling closer to the Latin, which the DLE keeps for awareness and consciousness rather than for the moral sense.^[10] The DTME notes that both spellings appear in the 13th century, ⟨conciencia⟩ in 1256 and ⟨consciencia⟩ in 1270, and that the hesitation between them has lasted to the present.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Partidas of Alfonso X.^[3][12] There it is the inner knowledge of good and evil: the law quotes Saint Augustine, sol que mi conciencia no me acuse delante Dios “so long as my conscience does not accuse me before God”.^[13][14] The CDH has an earlier hit in the Libro de los doce sabios (dated c. 1237), but in a copy of the late 14th or early 15th century.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 explains it, after Nebrija, as knowledge of oneself and of the good or evil in one's mind, and records ancho de conciencia “not scrupulous” and en mi conciencia “upon my word”.^[15] Autoridades in 1729 calls it a purely Latin word and keeps the same definition.^[16] The Academy's 1817 edition defines the phrase a conciencia as said of work done solidly and without fraud.^[17]

The psychological sense, the mind's knowledge of itself, leads the definition in the Academy's 2001 edition.^[18] The current DLE puts the moral senses first and refers the sense of being awake and aware to consciencia.^[5] Phrases include conciencia de clase “class consciousness”.^[5] In 1855 Baralt criticised con toda seguridad de conciencia as a pedantic Gallicism, preferring en conciencia and a conciencia.^[19]

Timeline

• 1256–1263 – the Primera Partida of Alfonso X uses conciencia for the inner judge of one's acts.^[13][3]
• a1260 – a mid-13th-century manuscript of the New Testament has mi conciencia, “my conscience”.^[14]
• 1270 – the spelling consciencia is recorded.^[11]
• c. 1300 – the BDELC's date for the word.^[4]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records ancho de conciencia and the derivative concienzudo.^[15]
• 1729 – Autoridades calls it a purely Latin word.^[16]
• 1855 – Baralt criticises seguridad de conciencia as a Gallicism.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. conscience: the knowledge of good and evil by which a person judges reality and their own acts morally.^[5][1]
2. A person's own moral sense: Es un político sin conciencia.^[5][21]
3. awareness, a spontaneous knowledge of a fact: No tenía conciencia del peligro.^[5][1]
4. A clear, reflective awareness of a situation, as in conciencia ecológica “environmental awareness”.^[5]
5. consciousness, the capacity to perceive one's surroundings (also spelt consciencia).^[5][10][1]
6. (psychology) The mental faculty by which a subject perceives itself in the world.^[5]

Word family

• autoconciencia
• concienciar
• concienzudo

Related words

• consciente
• consciencia
• ciencia
• Latin cōnscientia

Usage notes

The DLE separates the two spellings: conciencia for the moral sense and for awareness, consciencia (or conciencia) for the psychological sense, as in perder la consciencia “to lose consciousness”.^[5][10] Fixed phrases include a conciencia “thoroughly”, en conciencia “in good conscience” and examen de conciencia “examination of conscience”.^[17][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. conciencia
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 66
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ciencia
5. ^ 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. conciencia
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. conciencia
7. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 186
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cōnscientia
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. conciencia
10. ^ 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. consciencia
11. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. conciencia
12. ^ 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. conciencia
13. ^ 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. conciencia
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. conciencia
15. ^ 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. 1, 497
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 474
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 222
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. conciencia
19. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 155
20. ^ 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. concencia
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conciencia