crisis

Forms

crisis f (plural crisis)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin crisis (“decision; crisis”), which is from Ancient Greek κρίσις (krísis, “separation; decision, judgement”).^[2][3][4][1] The Greek noun is formed from κρίνω (krī́nō, “to separate, decide, judge”) with the suffix -σις (-sis).^[1][5] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to sift, separate”), and Latin cernō (“to separate, discern”) is a cognate.^[1]

In Latin it meant “judgement” and, as a medical term, “crisis”;^[6][7] Seneca uses it of a critical stage in life.^[6][7] The medical sense goes back to Hippocrates.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is the Alfonsine Judizios de las estrellas (1254–1260), which in reading a sick man's horoscope looks for las crisis buenas o malas “the good or bad crises” and when they will come.^[9][10] This is the medical sense, the turn of an illness for better or worse.^[8] Corominas's first record is the Diccionario de Autoridades, and the BDELC dates it 1705.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the word in medicine: a surgical treatise of about 1450 says that something forms at the root of the ear por via de crisis when a fever ends.^[9] Autoridades (1729) gives only “a judgement made about something after observing it”, which it calls a Greek word taken over by Latin.^[11][2] A writer in Mexico in 1690 uses crisi for a learned judgement.^[12] The Academy added the medical sense in 1783 and, in 1884, the extension to “the decisive moment of a serious affair”.^[2][13] Corominas thinks the figurative senses were probably imported, since French and English had them by the early 17th century, and Baralt condemned crisis ministerial as a Gallicism.^[2]

The DLE now leads with “a deep change with important consequences”, then the sudden worsening of symptoms, a bad or difficult situation, a government crisis and an economic downturn, and marks “judgement” as disused.^[4] In Mexico it once meant scarcity and a standstill in trade, and in Andalusia an illness hace crisis when it turns.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1254–1260 – the Judizios de las estrellas has the medical sense.^[9]
• c. 1450 – a surgical treatise uses por via de crisis.^[9]
• 1690 – crisi “judgement” in a book from Mexico.^[12]
• 1705 – the BDELC's first date.^[3]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives only the sense “judgement”.^[11][2]
• 1783 – the Academy adds the medical sense.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy extends it to the decisive moment of any serious affair.^[13][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deep change with important consequences in a process or situation, or in the way it is seen: la crisis del teatro clásico.^[4]
2. A sudden worsening of the symptoms of an illness; an attack or fit: una crisis de asma.^[4][1]
3. A bad or difficult situation: La empresa atraviesa una crisis.^[4]
4. A political situation in which members of the government have resigned or been dismissed: crisis de gobierno.^[4][16]
5. (economics) A fall in the rate of growth, or the lowest point of an economic cycle; a recession.^[4]
6. (medicine) A sudden change in the course of an illness, for better or worse.^[4][8]
7. (disused) A judgement made after careful examination.^[4]

Word family

• anticrisis

Related words

• crítico
• criterio
• hipocresía
• Latin crisis

Usage notes

Crisis is the same in the plural: las crisis.^[1] Set phrases include crisis ministerial and gabinete de crisis “crisis cabinet”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 245
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. crisis
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. crisis
5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. crisis
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. crisis
10. ^ 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. crisis
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 661
12. ^ a b 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. crisi
13. ^ 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. 306
14. ^ Ramos y Duarte, Félix (1895), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Imprenta de Eduardo Dublán, p. 144
15. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 671
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. crisis