decadencia

Forms

decadencia f (plural decadencias)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French décadence, a French word of 1413 that is a learned derivative of the family of Latin cadō (“to fall”).^[2][3][4] The French noun is probably from Medieval Latin decadentia, a neuter plural taken as a feminine singular, from the present participle of the Medieval Latin verb that also gave déchoir (“to decline, fall”).^[5] That verb, Vulgar Latin *decadere, replaced classical decidere (“to fall down”), and it is also the source of decaer, recorded in Spanish in 1220–1250.^[6][2]

Wiktionary takes the Spanish word straight from the Late Latin noun, perhaps through French.^[1] The DLE derives it from decadente,^[7] but Corominas dates that adjective only to 1832, long after the noun (1607).^[2] Italian decadenza was formed on the model of the French word too, in the 17th century.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in Luis Collado's Plática manual de artillería (1592), where it is a measure of descent: a given number of palms of decadencia for each distance, digging deeper step by step.^[9] In Luis Alfonso de Carvallo's Cisne de Apolo (1602) it already has the abstract sense, the decline that follows growth and maturity in all human things.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In French the word had first been concrete, the decay of a building, and took its figurative sense of decline about 1460.^[5] Spanish used it mainly of the decline of states and armies: Cabrera de Córdoba wrote of the causes of the decadencia of the Catholic forces in Frisia.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the beginning of the ruin of an empire, a monarchy or the like, and gave Latin labes as its equivalent.^[10] The Academy's later editions widened it to any person or thing, and in 1884 added weakness beside ruin.^[11][12]

By the end of the 20th century the word also named the period of history or art in which such a decline takes place.^[13][14] In popular speech in Honduras, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico it means physical weakness.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1592 – Luis Collado's treatise on artillery uses it for a measured descent.^[9]
• 1602 – Carvallo's Cisne de Apolo uses it for the decline of human things.^[9]
• 1607 – Corominas's date of first record.^[2]
• c. 1619 – Cabrera de Córdoba writes of the decline of the Catholic armies in Frisia.^[9]
• 1738 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada, of the weakening of the sun's heat.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as the beginning of the ruin of any person or thing.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from decadente.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. decline, decay: the process of losing strength, importance or quality: La fábrica entró en decadencia tras la guerra.^[7][4][1]
2. The period of history or art in which such a decline happens, decadence.^[13][14]
3. A state of moral or artistic decline.^[1][4]
4. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico; popular) Physical weakness.^[15]

Related words

• cadencia
• decadente
• decaer
• caer
• French décadence

Usage notes

The phrase ir en decadencia was given by Salvá in 1846 as an equivalent of ir a menos “to go downhill”.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. caer
3. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. decadencia
4. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. decadencia
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. décadence
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 193
7. ^ a b 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. decadencia
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. decadenza
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. decadencia
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 32
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 278
12. ^ 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. 338
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. decadencia
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. decadencia
15. ^ 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. decadencia
16. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. decadencia
17. ^ 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. decadencia
18. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 345