creyente

Forms

creyente m or f (masculine and feminine plural creyentes)^[1] Old Spanish also had the form crediente.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish creer + -nte, and corresponds to Latin crēdēns, the present participle of crēdō (“to believe, entrust”).^[3][4] Wiktionary and García de Diego derive the Spanish word directly from the Latin participle.^[1][5]

The Latin participle also gave Portuguese crente and Galician crente.^[5] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as Proto-Indo-European *ḱred-dʰeh₁- (“to place in the heart”), hence “believe”, with cognates in Celtic, Sanskrit and Avestan.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246, in an early 14th-century copy), which prays for the souls of the creyentes del santo evangelio, “the believers of the holy Gospel”.^[7] Corominas dates the word 1220–1250.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it both as an adjective, as in an Alfonsine text of about 1254, where people are verdaderos & creyentes in what they show, and in the phrase fazer creyente “to make someone believe”, which Alfonso X's prose (1270–1284) uses for a trick played on an enemy.^[8] Autoridades (1729) treats it as the active participle of creer, one who believes what he hears or reads, and especially one who firmly believes the mysteries of the faith.^[9] The religious sense is now the main one, and the word is used as a noun for a follower of a faith.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1228–1246 – Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa has creyentes.^[7]
• c. 1254 – an Alfonsine text uses it as an adjective.^[8]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's prose has fazer creyente “to make believe”.^[8]
• 1729 – Autoridades defines it as one who believes, especially in the mysteries of the faith.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary calls it the active participle of creer.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. believing; that believes.^[3][1]
2. religious, devout; that professes a particular faith: Su abuela era muy creyente.^[3][10][1]

Noun

1. A believer; in the plural, the faithful of a religion.^[3][10]

Related words

• creer
• creencia
• crédulo
• Latin crēdō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 152
3. ^ 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. creyente
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. creer
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1959
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. crēdō
7. ^ 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. creyente
8. ^ 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. creyente
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 654
10. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. creyente
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 305