degradar

Forms

degradar (first-person singular present degrado, first-person singular preterite degradé, past participle degradado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin degradō (“to reduce to a lower rank”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary calls the source Ecclesiastical Latin, and the verb is formed from dē- (“down, away from”) and gradus (“step, grade”).^[1][5] Du Cange cites it from the chronicle of Fredegar, for the Gothic custom of deposing kings.^[6] The inherited outcome of the Latin noun is grado “step, rank”.^[2] Old Spanish also had desgradar, with the prefix des-, in Alfonso X's Setenario and in the Partidas.^[7][8] The same Latin verb is French dégrader and Italian degradare.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it from the Partidas of Alfonso X, about 1260.^[2][3] The First Partida (1256–1263, in a copy of about 1290) explains the term: a bishop who ordains a man knowingly against the law deue seer despuesto e de sí degradado, que quier tanto dezir cuemo desordenado “must be deposed and then degraded, which is as much as to say unordained”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The verb first belonged to canon law: Covarrubias in 1611 described the stripping of a cleric's orders: the vestments of each grade were taken off in reverse order, and the man was handed over to the secular arm.^[12] Autoridades also gave the military ceremony in which a general or a knight of an order was publicly stripped of his insignia.^[13] Terreros added the sense of painting, “to lower the degree of colour or light”.^[9] The Academy recorded the reflexive “to lower oneself” in 1843 and the transitive “to humiliate, debase” in 1884.^[14][5] Baralt in 1855 called this figurative use (las pasiones degradan al hombre) a Gallicism, perhaps acceptable at times; in Chile Román defended it.^[15][16] The chemical sense, “to break a substance down into a simpler one”, is in the DRAE of 2001, and the sense “to wear down the qualities of something” is now the DLE's second.^[17][4]

Timeline

• c. 1252–1270 – Alfonso X's Setenario has the form desgradasen.^[7]
• 1256–1263 – the First Partida explains degradado as “unordained”.^[10][2]
• 1576 – first record from the Americas, in Lima, of clerics degraded and burned.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the degradation of a cleric.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades describes the military degradation.^[13]
• 1786 – Terreros gives the sense of painting.^[9]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the reflexive “to lower oneself”.^[14]
• 1855 – Baralt calls the figurative sense a Gallicism.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “to humiliate, debase”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strip someone of their dignities, honours, posts and privileges; to demote: El tribunal militar degradó al coronel.^[4][19]
2. To reduce or wear down the qualities of someone or something; to degrade.^[4][1]
3. To humiliate, debase (envilecer); also pronominal, to lower oneself.^[4][1]
4. To diminish the strength, intensity or size of something gradually, as of colours in a picture; also pronominal.^[4][9]
5. (chemistry) To break a complex substance down into one of simpler structure; also pronominal.^[4]

Word family

• degradación
• degradante
• degradable

Related words

• grado
• desgradar
• retrogradar
• Latin gradus
• French dégrader

Usage notes

The earliest CDH hits written degrado, in the Fuero of Zorita and the Fueros of Aragon, are the phrase de grado “willingly”, a word of a separate origin, not this verb.^[10][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 188
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grado
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. degradar
5. ^ 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. 343
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. degradare
7. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. degradar
8. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. degradar
9. ^ a b c d 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, 600
10. ^ 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. degradar
11. ^ 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. degradar
12. ^ 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. 640
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 53
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 230
15. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. s.v. degradar
16. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 82
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. degradar
18. ^ 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. degradar
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. degradar
20. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 189