decisión

Forms

decisión f (plural decisiones)^[1] Fifteenth-century texts also spell it deçision and deçisyon.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin dēcīsiō (“settlement, agreement”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas counts it, like decidir and decisivo, among the Latinisms of the family.^[5] The Latin noun is formed from dēcīdō (“to cut off; to settle”) with the suffix -tio.^[6][1] dēcīdō is a compound of caedō (“to cut”), so a decision was first a “cutting off” of a question.^[5][7]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Portuguese decisão, Catalan decisió, French décision and Italian decisione.^[1][8] Nascentes calls the Portuguese form semi-learned.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1565 in the Breve diccionario and to 1597, in Castillo de Bobadilla's Política, in the DCECH.^[4][5] The CDH has much earlier records; the first, of 1414, is in an Aragonese ordinance for Zaragoza, on the final settling of the city's accounts.^[2] The first in Castilian is El Tostado's Libro de las paradojas (1437), where the word still has its physical sense of a “separation”, of the male seed.^[2] In 1458 Pero Díaz de Toledo uses it for the resolving of a question: non me detengo en la decision é explicacion de estas cosas “I do not stop to decide and explain these matters”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word belonged to law and scholarship: the Hermandad's laws of 1486 speak of the hearing and decision of lawsuits.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the resolution of a disputed or doubtful matter, and also as the sentence of a council or court and the king's decree on a petition, with quotations from Castillo de Bobadilla.^[10] Terreros gave the French decision and Italian decisione as its equivalents.^[11] By 1884 the Academy also listed “firmness of character”, a sense that the DLE keeps as its second.^[12][3] The legal sense survives in the phrase decisión de Rota, a sentence of the Roman Rota.^[13][12]

In Mexico the word occurs in 1794 for a decision by majority vote, and the modern phrase toma de decisiones “decision-making” is recorded there in 1986.^[14]

Timeline

• 1414 – the Aragonese form decision in an ordinance given to Zaragoza by Ferdinand I.^[2]
• 1437 – El Tostado's Libro de las paradojas has deçision, the first record in Castilian.^[2]
• 1458 – Pero Díaz de Toledo uses it for resolving a question.^[2]
• 1486 – the laws of the Hermandad use it for the deciding of lawsuits.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario has deçision in a musical definition.^[2]
• 1565 – the date of first record in Corominas's Breve diccionario.^[4]
• 1597 – the date of first record in the DCECH, from Castillo de Bobadilla.^[5]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it with quotations from Castillo de Bobadilla.^[10]
• 1794 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin decisio and adds “firmness of character”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A decision: a resolution taken or given on a doubtful or disputed matter: Tomó la decisión de mudarse.^[3][15][1]
2. firmness of character, resolve: actuar con decisión.^[3][15]

Related words

• decidir
• decisivo
• indeciso
• Latin decisio
• Portuguese decisão

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. decisión
3. ^ a b c d 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. decisión
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. decidir
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 431
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 216
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. decisió
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. decisão
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. decisión
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 c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 339
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. decisión
14. ^ 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. decisión
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. decisión