culpa

Forms

culpa f (plural culpas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin culpa (“fault, blame”).^[2][3][1][4] The inherited form was Old Spanish colpa, which did not survive.^[1][4]

The Latin word is continued in Italian colpa and Occitan colpa, and in the French church word coulpe, whose ⟨l⟩ was restored after Latin.^[1][5] Portuguese culpa is learned like the Spanish word.^[6]

The Latin word had an older form colpa, reported by Priscian.^[7] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kʷolpā (“wrong, mistake”) and tentatively connects it with Proto-Germanic *hwelfaną (“to vault, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to bend, turn”), on the view that the word first meant a state of error rather than an act.^[7][1] The OLD calls the etymology doubtful.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in Almerich's Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where Abraham tells his servant Tu seas sin culpa de la iura que iurest “may you be free of blame for the oath you swore”.^[9] The Breve diccionario dates the word 1220–1250, and Berceo's San Millán has it of the sins for which the people were punished: Vedien que por sue culpa eran tan porfazados “they saw that they were so reviled through their own fault”.^[2][10][11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish culpa was a wrong done knowingly and willingly, close to “sin”.^[10][11] The phrases echar la culpa “to lay the blame” and caer en culpa “to sin” appear in Alfonso X's prose.^[12] The law distinguished degrees of fault: the Partidas, quoted by Autoridades, explain lata culpa as gross and manifest fault, and the jurists' culpa lata, leve and levísima are discussed by Covarrubias in 1611.^[13][14] The Academy's 1817 dictionary added culpa teológica “sin” and the proverb culpa no tiene quien hace lo que debe “he who does his duty bears no blame”.^[15]

Today the word means the attribution of an act to someone as the result of their conduct, and the fact of having caused something (por culpa de “because of”); in law it is the lack of due care that makes a person liable, and in psychology the feeling of responsibility for harm.^[3] Baralt in 1855 regretted the loss of a culpa de, which Saint Teresa had used.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has sin culpa in a 13th-century copy.^[9]
• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes requires a herdsman to swear that an animal did not die through his fault.^[9]
• 1220–1250 – the Breve diccionario's date of first record.^[2]
• 1235 – Berceo uses it in the Vida de San Millán.^[10]
• 1251 – the verb culpar is first recorded.^[2]
• 1256 – echar la culpa appears in the Picatrix of Alfonso X's court.^[12]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “a fault, blame”.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias names the jurists' kinds of fault, lata and leve.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. culpa”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. blame: the attribution of an act to someone as the result of their conduct: Nadie tuvo la culpa del retraso.^[3][1]
2. The fact of being the cause of something, especially something bad: Perdimos el tren por culpa del tráfico.^[3][19]
3. A fault or wrong done knowingly;^[20][1] (in the plural) one's sins or misdeeds.^[20][1]
4. (law) negligence: failure to take the care required of someone, which makes them liable for the resulting harm.^[3]
5. (psychology) guilt: the feeling of responsibility for harm one has caused.^[3][1]

Word family

• culpar
• culpado
• culpable
• disculpar
• exculpar
• inculpar
• culposo
• disculpa

Related words

• culpabilidad
• Latin culpa
• Italian colpa

Usage notes

Echar la culpa a alguien means “to blame someone”, and culpa teológica is sin, a voluntary breach of God's law.^[3][21] The Latin mea culpa is used as a set phrase.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. culpa
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. culpa
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. culpa
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. coulpe
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. culpa
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. culpa
10. ^ a b c 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. 836
11. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 273
12. ^ 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. culpa
13. ^ 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. 555
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. culpa
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 265
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 199
17. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 101
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 321
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. culpa
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. culpa
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 216