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corriente

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word corriente

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1213 a document of the monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin currens

Pronunciation

  • /koˈrjente/, [koˈrjẽn̪.t̪e][1]

Forms

corriente m or f (masculine and feminine plural corrientes)[1] Old Spanish also had the shortened corrient, as in Herman the German's translation of the Psalms and the Aragonese Vidal Mayor.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin currēns (“running”), the present participle of currō (“to run”).[1][4][5] The DLE and the 2001 DRAE call it the old present participle of correr, and Corominas lists it among that verb's derivatives.[4][6][7]

The same Latin participle is Portuguese corrente, Galician corrente, Catalan corrent, French courant and Italian corrente.[1][8] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Italic *korzō and Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is agua corriente “running water” in a document of Las Huelgas, Burgos, of 1213.[3] The Libro de los doce sabios (c. 1237, in a later copy) advises fleeing a land without a just king, a río corriente “running river” and a wise physician.[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of putting a stone in agua corriente.[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century Juan Ruiz used it of a greyhound in the sense “swift”.[10][11] The noun for the flow of a river or the sea appears in Alfonso X's General Estoria and again in Palencia (1490).[9][10] Autoridades (1729) defined the noun as the course of a river or spring and the part where the water runs fastest, and used it figuratively for the course of business.[12]

Terreros recorded the current month or year and moneda corriente “current money”.[8] The Academy in 1817 added “unimpeded”, “accepted by custom”, “fluent” of style, and the phrase corriente y moliente “plain and ordinary”.[13] Its 1884 edition added “certain, generally known”, and Alemany (1917) “of ordinary quality” and “plain in manner”.[14][15] Today the noun also means an electric current and a trend of ideas.[4][1]

Among the conquistadors a corriente was a long iron chain that held enslaved Indians by the neck, one behind the other, as Simón and Ortiguera describe.[16] In Mexico and Puerto Rico it means “of ordinary quality” and, of a person, “easygoing, approachable”.[17][18] In the Canaries it is the slope that carries water along a furrow or off a roof.[19][20]

Timeline

  • 1213 – agua corriente in a document of Las Huelgas, Burgos.[3]
  • c. 1237 – río corriente in the Libro de los doce sabios (in a later copy).[2]
  • 1250–1279 – agua corriente in Alfonso X's Lapidario.[9]
  • 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses it for “swift”.[11]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario, Corominas's first record.[7][21]
  • 1514 – corrientes for water channels in Tenerife.[20]
  • 1526 – the first record from the Americas, in Honduras.[22]
  • c. 1585 – Ortiguera mentions the chain called corriente.[16]
  • 1729 – Autoridades defines the noun.[12]
  • 1817 – the Academy adds the phrase corriente y moliente.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. running, flowing: agua corriente.[4][1]
  2. current, present: of the week, month, year or century now going on: a finales del mes corriente.[4][5]
  3. In use at present: moneda corriente.[4]
  4. Latest, said of a receipt or the issue of a periodical.[4]
  5. Generally known and accepted; allowed by custom.[4]
  6. Frequent, common; ordinary, normal: Vive en una casa corriente.[4][1][23]
  7. Of a person: easygoing, plain in manner.[4]
  8. Of style: fluent.[4]

Noun

  1. A current: the flow of water or air in one direction: La corriente arrastró la barca.[4][1]
  2. An electric current.[4][1]
  3. A trend, tendency or movement of ideas.[1]

Word family

  • correntoso
  • corrientemente
  • contracorriente
  • correr
  • curso
  • Portuguese corrente

Usage notes

Al corriente means “up to date”, and corriente y moliente “plain, ordinary”.[1][13] Llevarle la corriente a alguien is to humour someone.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. corriente
  3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. corriente
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. corriente
  5. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. corriente
  6. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. corriente
  7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 208
  8. ^ a b 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, p. 1, 532
  9. ^ a b c 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. corriente
  10. ^ a b 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. 794
  11. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 146
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 619
  13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 246
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 298
  15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 462
  16. ^ a b Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 213
  17. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 405
  18. ^ García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. corriente
  19. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. corriente
  20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. corriente
  21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 319
  22. ^ 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. corriente
  23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. corriente

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Corriente.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/corriente. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·