condado

Forms

condado m (plural condados)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin comitātus (“retinue, escort”).^[2][1] Corominas and the Breve diccionario treat it as a derivative of conde.^[3][4] In Medieval Latin the noun came to mean the office of a count and the district under his jurisdiction.^[5][6] The same word is Portuguese condado, Asturian condáu, Catalan comtat, French comté and Italian contado.^[1][7]

The Latin noun is formed on comitor (“to accompany”), from comes (“companion”).^[1][8] De Vaan explains this noun as a compound of com- with the root of eō (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ei- (“to go”): a companion is one who goes together with another.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found comdato in a charter of 943 and condado in Berceo.^[3] In the Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, in an 18th-century copy) Berceo says that without its kings the kingdom of Castile would have become a county: el regno de Castiella tornara en condado.^[10][11] DEMel also lists comdado in a document of Burgos of 1107.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish condado named the land ruled by a count, and sometimes simply a country or land.^[13][14] The Partidas, as Autoridades quotes them, call the estates given to these officials condados.^[15] The Quijote uses it of a county promised as a reward.^[16] Terreros notes the older Castilian synonym condadura.^[17]

Salvá in 1846 added the sense of an administrative department in some countries.^[18] The Academy's 1884 edition split the title or dignity of count from the territory it refers to.^[19] Today the word also names the counties of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States; in Puerto Rico it has been used as an adapted anglicism for an American-style county.^[2][20][21]

Timeline

• 943 – comdato in a charter.^[3][4]
• 1107 – comdado in a document of Burgos.^[12]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has condado.^[10][3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it of the territory under a count's jurisdiction.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin comitatus.^[22]
• 1729 – Autoridades defines it as the territory of the dignity of count.^[15]
• 1846 – Salvá adds the sense of an administrative district in some countries.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary separates the title from the territory.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dignity or title of a count (conde).^[2][23]
2. A county: the territory to which the title of count refers, formerly under the count's lordship.^[2][1]
3. An administrative district in English-speaking countries: el condado de Kent.^[2][20]

Word family

• vizcondado

Related words

• conde
• condesa
• condal
• Latin comes
• English county

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. condado
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 170
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conde
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1755
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. condado
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. condado
13. ^ 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), p. s.v. condado
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 484
16. ^ 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
17. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra
18. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
19. ^ 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. 272
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
21. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. condado
22. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 316
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos