contrarrevolución

Forms

contrarrevolución f (plural contrarrevoluciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish contra- + revolución.^[1][2] Echegaray and Barcia set it beside French contre-révolution.^[3][4] revolución itself goes back to Late Latin revolūtiō (“a revolving”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boyd-Bowman's earliest record is from Uruguay in 1812: formar una contrarrevolución “to form a counter-revolution”.^[5] In Spain the CDH has it first in Sebastián de Miñano's satirical pamphlets of the Trienio Constitucional (1820–1823).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to the politics of the early 19th century, on both sides of the Atlantic: in Cuzco in 1814 and 1815 it was written contra-revolución.^[5] Salvá in 1846 still marked contrarevolucion as a neologism, and Domínguez noted that a counter-revolution in a backward direction was called reacción.^[7][8] Both wrote it with a single r; the Academy's dictionary has it as contrarrevolucion by 1884.^[7][8][9]

Timeline

• 1812 – first record, in Uruguay.^[5]
• 1814 – contra-revolución in a document from Cuzco.^[5]
• 1820–1823 – first record in Spain, in Miñano's pamphlets.^[6]
• 1846 – Salvá lists it as a neologism.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary defines it as a revolution in the opposite direction to the one just before.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. counterrevolution: a revolution in the opposite direction to one shortly before it.^[10][1][11]

Related words

• contrarrevolucionario
• revolución
• French contre-révolution

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
3. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 423
4. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 1036
5. ^ a b c d Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
7. ^ a b c Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 291
8. ^ a b 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. 458
9. ^ 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. 287
10. ^ 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. contrarrevolución
11. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos