cuestión

Forms

cuestión f (plural cuestiones)^[1] Old Spanish wrote questión, qüestión and quistión; the popular qüistión occurs in the Rimado de Palacio, and custión is still heard in Asturias and elsewhere.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin quaestiō (“search; inquiry; problem”), a learned word.^[2][4][5][1] It is formed from Latin quaerō (“to seek, ask”) + -tiō.^[1][6] It therefore belongs to the family of querer, the inherited outcome of the Latin verb.^[2][7] De Vaan traces the verb to a Proto-Indo-European present meaning “to acquire”.^[8]

Wiktionary considers its use for a question that asks for information a semantic loan from English.^[1] Corominas notes that the sense “matter, subject” is post-classical, and that Baralt took it for a Gallicism.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first hits in the CDH are in Berceo (1228–1246, in copies of the 14th century and later), who uses it for a question put to someone: quando bien li recuden a la su questïón “when they answer his question well”, and of the Pharisees who could not answer Christ's cuestïones.^[10][4] In the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240) it is a riddle to be solved.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's astrological works use it for a matter put to the astrologer for a prediction.^[11] Nebrija distinguishes question “a question”, question de tormento “judicial torture” and a question in a lawsuit.^[2][12] Cuestión de tormento is also the first sense recorded in the Americas, in 1515.^[13]

Terreros described it as a term of the schools and academies for a dispute.^[14] The 19th-century Academy gave “a question asked to find out the truth by debate” and “a quarrel”, with a mathematical sense; by 1917 Alemany lists set phrases such as cuestión candente and cuestión de gabinete.^[15][16] Baralt in 1855 condemned phrases such as la cuestión no está clara and el asunto en cuestión as French.^[9]

In Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador and Paraguay cuestión names a thing one cannot or will not name; in Bolivia and Nicaragua it is a euphemism for menstruation, and in Honduras for drugs.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses questión for a question.^[4][10]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio uses qüestión for a riddle.^[10]
• 1259 – Alfonso X's astrological works use it for a matter to be judged by the stars.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records question de tormento;^[2][12] cuestionar is first recorded.^[2][12]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, in cuestión de tormento.^[13]
• mid-17th century – cuestionario is first recorded.^[4]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns its use for “matter, subject” as a Gallicism.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A question asked in order to establish the truth of something by argument.^[5]
2. A quarrel or dispute.^[5][19]
3. A doubtful or debatable point.^[5]
4. A matter or subject: Hablaremos de la cuestión del dinero mañana.^[5][19][1]
5. A problem to be solved by scientific methods.^[5]
6. (law) Torture used in a judicial inquiry, cuestión de tormento.^[5]
7. A question in an examination or questionnaire;^[19][7][1] (nonstandard) any question asking for information.^[19][7][1]
8. (Latin America, colloquial) A thing whose name one does not know or does not want to say.^[17][18][1]

Word family

• cuestionario
• cuestionar
• cuestionable

Related words

• querer
• Latin quaestiō

Usage notes

En cuestión “in question” and cuestión de “a matter of” are common set phrases;^[5][1] cuestión batallona is a hotly disputed issue.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 717
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cuestión
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuestión
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cuestión
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cuestión
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. ^ a b c Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 196
10. ^ 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. cuestión
11. ^ 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. cuestión
12. ^ 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. cuestión
13. ^ 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. costión
14. ^ 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, 576
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 296
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 493
17. ^ 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. cuestión
18. ^ a b 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. cuestión
19. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuestión