cuento

Forms

cuento m (plural cuentos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin computus (“calculation, reckoning”), the noun of computō (“to calculate, count up”).^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary gives the Vulgar Latin form as *contus or *comptus.^[1] The Latin verb is made of con- and putō (“to reckon”), and its Spanish outcome is contar.^[5][1][2] The Academy's 1884 dictionary derived the noun from the Spanish verb, whereas the DLE now gives the Latin noun as its source.^[6][4] The learned doublet is cómputo, recorded from 1601.^[7]

The same Latin noun is Portuguese conto, Galician conto, Catalan compte, Italian conto and French compte.^[8][9] Vox explains the sense “short story” from the idea of enumerating events, and Corominas notes that the verb already had both “to count” and “to narrate” in the first documents of the language.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and the BDELC date the noun from a document of 1200.^[2][3] Its oldest sense is “count, number”: the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) says that Joseph gathered so much grain que non avya cuento “that there was no counting it”, and the Fuero de Zorita (1218–1250) has peche segund el cuento del apreçiamiento “let him pay according to the reckoning of the assessment”.^[11] Berceo uses it for the fulfilment of a time: quand' se llegó la hora e el cuento fue lleno “when the hour came and the count was full”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has the word for a reckoning, for a number or quantity and for the account of events, as in the cuentos de los reyes of the Estoria de España.^[13] Nebrija's Latin equivalents are numerus and numeratio, and his Spanish–Latin vocabulary also gives cuento as fabula, a story told to children.^[14][15] In arithmetic a cuento was a million: Covarrubias defines it as ten times a hundred thousand, and Autoridades says that it was then used chiefly of sums of money.^[16][17] A 1516 report from Santo Domingo counts the native people at un quento e 100.000 personas.^[18] The DLE now marks this sense as obsolete.^[4]

The modern word means a short piece of fiction, an account of an event, an invention, a lie or a piece of gossip, with phrases such as cuento chino “tall story” and vivir del cuento “to live by one's wits”.^[4] In the River Plate, Chile and Peru el cuento del tío is a confidence trick played with an invented story.^[19] In the Dominican Republic the word also means a joke.^[20] Tagalog borrowed it as kuwento.^[1]

Timeline

• 1200 – the DCECH's and the BDELC's date of first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has non avya cuento “there was no counting it”.^[11]
• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the earliest record in a contemporary manuscript.^[11]
• 1254–1260 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for a computation.^[13]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for an account of events.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin numerus, and also fabula and narratio.^[14][15]
• 1516 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, in the sense “million”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines a cuento as ten times a hundred thousand.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from contar.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short story of fiction; a tale: La abuela nos leía un cuento cada noche.^[4][1]
2. An account of an event, often an indiscreet one.^[4]
3. An account, spoken or written, of something false or made up.^[4]
4. A computation or count, as of years or days.^[4]
5. (colloquial) A lie or trick: Eso que te ha dicho es puro cuento.^[4][1]
6. (colloquial) Gossip or a piece of mischief told to set one person against another.^[4]
7. (colloquial) A quarrel or bad feeling between people.^[4]
8. (obsolete) A million, or a large indefinite number.^[4][1][17]

Word family

• bicuento
• cuentacuentos
• cuentista
• cuentero

Related words

• contar
• cuenta
• cómputo
• Latin computus
• Portuguese conto

Usage notes

The DLE has a second cuento, the metal tip at the lower end of a lance, pike or stick, and a prop or shore, which comes from Latin contus (“pole”), from Ancient Greek κοντός (kontós).^[4][21] Corominas dates its sense “metal tip” from 1599, with the older senses “staff” in Berceo and “lance shaft” in Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor (1328–1335); its derivative is contera.^[22][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 180
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. contar
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. cuento
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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. 317
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 143
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1792
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cuento
11. ^ 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. cuento
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 271
13. ^ 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. cuento
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 322
15. ^ 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. 829
16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 505
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 682
18. ^ 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. cuento
19. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 277
20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. cuento
21. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cuento
22. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 272
23. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuento