crueldad

Forms

crueldad f (plural crueldades)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish crueldat, inherited from Latin crūdēlitās (“cruelty, savagery”).^[2][1][3] DICCA-XV derives it instead from the adjective cruel.^[4] Corominas dates the noun, like the adjective, to 1220–1250.^[5]

The same Latin noun is Portuguese crueldade, Galician crueldade, Catalan crueltat, Occitan cruzeltat and Italian crudeltà.^[6][7] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[8] French cruauté may come from a Vulgar Latin variant, or was formed in Old French.^[9]

The Latin noun is formed from crūdēlis (“cruel”) and the suffix -tās, and the adjective from crūdus (“raw, bloody, rough”).^[10][11] De Vaan tentatively reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European adjective “raw” for it.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (about 1236, in a late 13th-century manuscript), where the saint prays that the heathen may lose the power de fer a los christianos premia e crueldad “to oppress the Christians and use cruelty on them”.^[12] The earliest text without a later copy is Herman the German's Psalter (c. 1240–1272): no eres Tú Dios que quieras crueldat “you are not a God who wants cruelty”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used it for the quality and for a cruel act, and the Libro de Apolonio once for a lack of courtesy.^[13][3] The Siete Partidas also had crueleza, which Autoridades marked as antiquated.^[14] Nebrija gave Latin crudelitas and saevitia.^[15][4] Domínguez in 1846 added figurative senses, coldness or ingratitude and the harshness of fate.^[16] The Academy's modern definition, inhumanity and a cruel act, goes back to its 1843 edition.^[17][2]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo uses crueldad in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[12]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has crüeldat.^[12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón have crueldat.^[12]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for a cruel act.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin crudelitas.^[15]
• 1527 – first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades marks crueleza as antiquated.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin crudelitas.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. cruelty, inhumanity, ruthlessness: Trataba a los animales con crueldad.^[2][1]
2. A cruel, inhuman act: Fue una crueldad dejarlo solo en la calle.^[2]

Related words

• cruel
• crudo
• crudeza
• Latin crūdēlitās

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. crueldad
3. ^ 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. 154
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. crudo
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. cruauté
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. crueldad
13. ^ a b 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. crueldad
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 665
15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 321
16. ^ 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. 498
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 207
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 308