concreto

Forms

concreto (feminine concreta, masculine plural concretos, feminine plural concretas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin concrētus (“thick, condensed, compact”), the past participle of concrēscō (“to grow together; to thicken, harden”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas treats it under crecer, since the Latin verb is formed con- and crēscō (“to grow”).^[2][5][6] Bénaben explains the modern sense as a figurative use of the idea of a solid, palpable consistency: “tangible, real”, as opposed to abstract.^[7]

The noun for the building material, used in the Americas, the Canaries and the Philippines, is borrowed from English concrete, a loan from English that took the form of the Spanish adjective.^{[8][9][1][10]} Gómez de Silva's dictionary of Mexicanisms derives it instead from the Spanish adjective in the sense “solid, compact”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250), in a passage on logic that explains the Latin term: concretas, ço es ensemble crescidas “concrete, that is, grown together”.^[12][2] Corominas's next record is from Hernán Núñez in 1499.^[2]

Semantic evolution

For a long time it was a term of philosophy and logic: the Diccionario de Autoridades has it as a masculine noun, “a philosophical word”, for the term that signifies the subject together with its form, as in en concreto against en abstracto.^[13] The Academy's 1817 edition used it as an adjective of logic and of chemistry, of resins and gums that harden after being liquid, and the 1843 edition gave the general sense “considered in itself, without what is foreign or accessory to it”.^[14][15] Domínguez added the adverbial phrase en concreto and the arithmetic use, which the Academy recorded in 1884 as número concreto.^[16][17]

The noun for the building material is first defined by Alemany in 1917, for Chile, as a mass of water, lime and gravel for foundations.^[18] Boyd-Bowman has a Colombian definition of 1921 and el puente de concreto in Peru in 1948.^[19] Santamaría notes in 1942 that it was by then made mostly of cement, sand and water, reinforced with iron rods.^[20] The DAMER records it from the United States and Mexico to Chile and the Río de la Plata, and it is also used in Tenerife.^[8][21] In Spain the material is called hormigón.^[22][9]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor explains Latin concretas as “grown together”.^[12][2]
• 1494 – Vicente de Burgos's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus speaks of names of God that grammarians call concretos.^[12]
• 1499 – Hernán Núñez.^[2]
• c. 1760 – the derivative concretar “to make concrete, specify” is first recorded.^[3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary gives the senses of logic and chemistry.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and número concreto.^[17]
• 1917 – Alemany records the building material, for Chile.^[18]
• 1921 – a Colombian definition of the material as a mortar of hydraulic lime, sand and crushed stone.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Considered in itself, especially as opposed to what is abstract and general; concrete.^[4][1]
2. Solid, compact, material.^[4]
3. Resulting from a process of concreción.^[4]
4. Precise, definite, specific: Dame una fecha concreta para la entrega.^[4][1]

Noun

1. A concretion.^[4]
2. (Latin America, United States, Canary Islands, Philippines) Concrete, the building material made of cement, sand, gravel and water.^[8][1][21] Spain says hormigón.^[22][9]

Word family

• concretar

Related words

• crecer
• abstracto
• Latin concrētus
• English concrete

Usage notes

En concreto means “specifically, in particular”.^[4] In grammar a nombre concreto is a concrete noun.^[4][1]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 234
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concreto
4. ^ 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. concreto
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. concreto
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
8. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. concreto
9. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concreto
10. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. concreto
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 64
12. ^ 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. concreto
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 482
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 223
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 182
16. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 431
17. ^ 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. 271
18. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 426
19. ^ 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. concreto
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 386
21. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. concreto
22. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. concreto