crédito

Forms

crédito m (plural créditos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin crēditum (“a loan, a debt”), the neuter of crēditus, past participle of crēdō (“to believe, to entrust”).^[2][3][1][4] The BDELC dates it to the middle of the 16th century.^[2] Wiktionary allows that the word, above all in its financial and commercial sense, may have come through Italian credito, itself a learned borrowing from the same Latin noun.^[1] In Latin the noun meant what is lent or entrusted, a loan or a debt.^[5]

The popular outcome of the Latin participle is creído, a doublet of the learned word.^[1] García de Diego records popular forms in the west, Galician creto “credit” and, in Beira, Portuguese creta (“debt”), and calls the Castilian word learned; the same popular outcome is Asturian creitu.^[6][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *krezde/o- and to *ḱred-dʰeh₁- (“to place in the heart, to believe”), with cognates in Celtic and Indo-Iranian.^[8] Nocentini also analyses it as an old compound of a noun for “faith” and the root “to put”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Libro del cavallero Cifar (1300–1305, known from a copy of the late 15th century), where people are chosen for honour por el crédito de su bondad “for the repute of their goodness”.^[10] Its first hit from a text with no later copy is Antón de Moros's Debate (c. 1450): yo he ganado tan buen credito en la vida “I have won such good repute in life”.^[10] DICCA-XV dates its first record 1445–1463.^[11] The sense in these texts is “belief, credence, good name”; the Crónica de Juan II (1406–1411) already has dieron a ello poco crédito “they gave it little credence”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The financial sense is clear by the end of the 15th century: Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 renders Latin decoquo as quebrar el credito “to break one's credit”, that is, to go bankrupt.^[11] Terreros listed three senses in the 18th century: the esteem a person earns by virtue and good faith, favour or influence with someone, and in commerce the trust by which money or goods are handed over to someone on the strength of his honesty.^[12] The Academy's 1817 dictionary gave the debt owed to someone, belief, support, good name and the letter of credit, with the phrase dar a crédito “to lend money on no security but the borrower's credit”.^[13] In 1899 it gave the etymology, Latin creditum, and a commercial sense: the confidence that someone will meet his commitments.^[14]

Today the first sense in the DLE is a loan of money, especially from a bank; it also lists the unit by which university courses are counted and, in the plural, the credits of a film or television programme.^[3] The Tesoro of Puerto Rico treats the university sense as an adapted anglicism, from English credit, and notes that the Academy has recorded it since 2001.^[15] In Panama and Puerto Rico créditos is an academic record, and in rural Argentina crédito is the horse its owner trusts most.^[16]

Timeline

• 1300–1305 – the Libro del cavallero Cifar, in a copy of the late 15th century, has crédito “repute”.^[10]
• 1406–1411 – the Crónica de Juan II uses it for “credence”.^[10]
• c. 1450 – Antón de Moros's Debate, the first record without a later copy.^[10]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary has quebrar el credito “to go bankrupt”.^[11]
• 1546 – first record of the derivative acreditar.^[2]
• 1549 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[17]
• 1581 – desacreditar;^[13] descrédito follows in 1617.^[2]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records dar a crédito.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin creditum.^[14]
• 1939 – first record of crediticio.^[2]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary first records the university sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loan: a sum of money that a person or, especially, a bank lends to another on agreed terms of repayment: Pidieron un crédito para comprar el piso.^[3][18]
2. Support, backing, proof.^[3]
3. reputation, good name, standing, usually in a favourable sense: Su palabra tiene crédito entre los vecinos.^[3][19]
4. credence, belief, acceptance of something as true: Nadie dio crédito a su historia.^[3][19]
5. Financial standing or moral qualities that allow a person or firm to obtain money or goods from others; the confidence that someone will meet his commitments.^[3]
6. A letter of credit (carta de crédito).^[3]
7. (education) A credit: the unit by which a university course or subject is counted, equal to a given number of teaching hours.^[3]
8. (in the plural) The credits of a film or television programme, the list of the people who made it.^[3]
9. (Panama, Puerto Rico; in the plural) A student's academic record.^[3][16]

Word family

• acreditar
• desacreditar
• descrédito
• crediticio

Related words

• creer
• creído
• crédulo
• credo
• Latin crēditum
• Italian credito

Usage notes

Phrases include dar crédito “to believe” and dar a crédito “to lend on trust”.^[20] A crédito blando is a loan on easy terms.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. creer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. crédito
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 200
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1961
7. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. creitu
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. crédito
11. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. crédito
12. ^ 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, 546
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 252
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 282
15. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. crédito
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. crédito
17. ^ 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. crédito
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. crédito
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. crédito
20. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 670