decidir

Forms

decidir (first-person singular present decido, first-person singular preterite decidí, past participle decidido)^[1] Ribadeneira (1599–1601) used the Latinising participle deciso.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēcīdō (“to cut off; to decide, settle”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from dē- (“down, off”) and caedō (“to cut”), so that its figurative sense is “to cut short, settle” a question or a dispute.^[5][6][7] Latin also had a homonym meaning “to fall down”, formed from cadō (“to fall”);^[8][1] Spanish decaer belongs with that verb.^[8][1]

The same Latin word was borrowed as French décider, recorded in 1403.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Ercilla in 1569; the word then appears in Oudin (1607), in Góngora (1613) and in many authors from the second third of the 17th century, and it is missing from Palencia, Nebrija, the Celestina, the Quijote and Covarrubias.^[2] DICCA-XV, however, reports a first record in its own corpus of 1429, and one of 1348 in the CORDE.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In 1492 Nebrija rendered Latin decido as atajar pleito “to cut short a lawsuit”, not yet with the Spanish verb.^[9] Autoridades defines decidir as to determine, resolve, judge or pass sentence on a case, doubt, question or lawsuit, quoting Solórzano and Góngora.^[10] Terreros gave French décider as its equivalent, and the Academy's 1884 dictionary explains it as “to cut the difficulty”.^[11][12]

From settling a question the verb passed to making up one's own mind, to making someone else resolve, and to determining an outcome, as of a match.^[4][13] The learned derivatives decisión and decisivo were also taken from Latin.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1569 – Corominas's first record, in Ercilla.^[2][3]
• 1599–1601 – Ribadeneira uses the participle deciso.^[2]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary records it.^[2]
• 1613 – Góngora uses it in the Soledades.^[2][10]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as judging a case or doubt.^[10]
• 1794 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy explains it as “to cut the difficulty”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To settle or resolve a doubtful or disputed matter; to rule on it: El tribunal decidirá el caso.^[4][1]
2. To decide, make up one's mind to do something: Hemos decidido mudarnos.^[4][1]
3. To make someone resolve to do something: El frío lo decidió a volver.^[4]
4. To determine the outcome of something: Un penalti decidió la final.^[4][15]
5. (pronominal) To make up one's mind after thinking it over, or to choose: decidirse por el tren.^[4][13]

Word family

• decidido

Related words

• decisión
• decisivo
• decisor
• indecisión
• indeciso
• Latin dēcīdō
• French décider

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 431
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. decidir
4. ^ 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. decidir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. decidir
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. décider
8. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 193
9. ^ 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, p. s.v. decidir
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 34
11. ^ 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, 594
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 Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. decidir
14. ^ 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. decidir
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. decidir