continuo

Forms

continuo (feminine continua, masculine plural continuos, feminine plural continuas)^[1] The popular form contino (feminine contina) was common in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin continuus (“adjoining, consecutive, uninterrupted”), from contineō (“to hold together; to contain”).^[2][4][5][1] That verb is formed from con- (“together”) and teneō (“to hold”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Indo-European *tn-eh₁- (“to hold”).^[1][6]

The word was frequent in the 15th century, but in the 14th and early 15th centuries continuado was the usual form.^[2] The less learned contino was common in the 15th and 16th centuries, and around 1600 it was confined to the adverb “continually”;^[2] Autoridades says it was by then used only in poetry.^[2] García de Diego records it in Castilian and Navarrese.^[3]

Related forms are Portuguese contínuo, Catalan continu, French continu, Italian continuo and Romanian continuu.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A work of Alfonso X's scriptorium of 1259 speaks of febres continuas & agudas, “continuous and acute fevers”, among the ills foretold by a conjunction of planets.^[8] Corominas dates the word to the second half of the 13th century, with the Aragonese Vidal Mayor as his first record.^[4][2] The examples in the Libro de Alexandre, the Flores de filosofía and Juan Ruiz, which Cuervo cited, are probably later readings of the manuscripts.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Toledo glossary of about 1400 renders Latin asiduus as cosa continua, and Nebrija about 1495 gives Latin iugis and perpetuus for continuo en duracion.^[9][10] Autoridades defines the adjective as made of homogeneous parts joined by a common boundary, and as perpetual, as in movimiento continuo; used as a noun, the physicists' continuo was divided into the permanent (a body) and the successive (time).^[11]

The noun also named a man attached to a lord, who maintained him and to whom he owed loyalty, and the members of the royal guard of the cien continuos.^[5][12] In the Americas a man is called a continuo criado de Su Majestad in Santo Domingo in 1527.^[13] Later dictionaries add technical uses: fiebre continua, papel continuo and the mathematical fracción continua, the electrical corriente continua, and the musical bajo continuo.^[12][14][5]

Timeline

• 1259 – febres continuas in a work of Alfonso X.^[8]
• c. 1400 – the Toledo glossary.^[2][9]
• 1400–1421 – quarenta años continuos in the Libro de los exemplos.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary.^[10]
• 1519 – contino as an adverb in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1527 – a contino de su majestad, a royal retainer, in Santo Domingo.^[13]
• c. 1600 – contino survives only as an adverb.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lasting, done or extending without a break; continuous: Se oyó un ruido continuo toda la noche.^[5][14][1]
2. Of two or more things: joined to one another; adjacent.^[5][1]
3. Constant and persevering in an activity.^[5][1]
4. Happening again and again; continual: Estoy harto de sus continuas excusas.^[14][15]
5. (mathematics) Of a magnitude: taking values that are not separated from one another.^[5][1]
6. (electricity) Of a current: always flowing in the same direction (corriente continua, direct current).^[14][1]

Noun

1. A whole made of parts joined together; a continuum.^[5][1]
2. (historical) A man attached to a lord, who kept and favoured him and to whom he owed loyalty and obedience.^[5][1]
3. (historical) A member of the cien continuos, the corps that guarded the king's person and palace.^[5][1]
4. (music) The basso continuo.^[5][15][1]

Adverb

1. (dated) Continually.^[5][14]

Word family

• continuidad
• continuar
• discontinuo
• continuamente
• continuismo

Related words

• contener
• Latin continuus

Usage notes

De continuo and a la continua mean “continually”;^[5][1] acto continuo means “immediately afterwards”.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 182
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1858
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. continuo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. continuo
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. contínuo
8. ^ 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. continuo
9. ^ a b c 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. 773
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 318
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 557
12. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 442
13. ^ a b c 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. contino
14. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. continuo
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. continuo