Etymologically
Log in

derecho

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word derecho

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1056 a charter in Oelschläger's list, as the noun derecto More words from the 11th century
Inherited from
Latin derectus via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-

Pronunciation

  • /deˈɾet͡ʃo/, [d̪eˈɾe.t͡ʃo][1]

Forms

derecho (feminine derecha, masculine plural derechos, feminine plural derechas)[1] Old Spanish also had drecho, from a contracted Latin form; it was most common in Aragonese and eastern writers, and is still alive in the Aragonese area.[2][3] Old Spanish texts also write dreyto and dreito.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish derecho, inherited from Vulgar Latin dērēctus (“straight, direct”), the popular form of Latin dīrēctus, the past participle of dīrigō (“to direct”), itself formed from regō (“to direct, guide”).[2][5][1] The DLE starts directly from the classical form.[6] The two Latin spellings stand side by side in the manuscripts with no difference of meaning, and the vulgar one is found in many manuscripts of Cicero and in glosses.[2] De Vaan treats dērigō as the older verb, and dates the spelling with ⟨dī-⟩ to the 4th century AD.[7]

The same word is Portuguese direito, Galician dereito, Asturian derechu, Aragonese dreito, Catalan dret, Occitan drech, French droit, Italian dritto and Romanian drept.[2][8][3] According to Corominas all the Romance forms go back to the Latin form with ⟨dē-⟩, and the ⟨i⟩ of modern Portuguese is a spelling correction of medieval dereito.[2][9] In several languages the two like vowels were contracted to *drectus, the source of the French, Catalan and Romanian forms and of the Old Spanish variant drecho.[2]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch, direct”).[7] In the Romance languages the word largely took the place of dexter (“right-hand”), and as a noun that of iūs (“law, right”).[8] The learned doublet is directo, recorded from 1555.[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun the word is first found in charters, as derecto in 1056 and as derecho in 1129.[2] Corominas notes that the noun sense “justice, right” must be very old, since Cuervo found Latin directum with this value in a document of 1010.[2][5] The adjective first appears in the Cantar de mio Cid, where it means “upright”: derecha viene la seña “the banner comes held upright”.[2][10] In the same poem the noun means “justice, what is right”, as in con derecho lo fazen “they do it rightly”, and is opposed to tuerto “wrong”.[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the adjective for “straight”, “upright”, “just, honest”, “legitimate” and “right-hand”, and as an adverb for “straight ahead”.[11] In the prose of Alfonso X it describes straight lines and the right hand, and means “just, reasonable” and “certain”.[12] Phrases with tener a derecho meant “to protect someone in his right”, and Berceo built expressions such as dar derecho “to give satisfaction, to punish”.[10][13]

Covarrubias in 1611 explains the noun as the opposite of tuerto and lists its divisions: divine and human law, natural law, the law of nations, civil and canon law.[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds the taxes and fees called derechos, and the right side of a cloth or garment.[15] The modern dictionaries define the noun as an entitlement, as justice, as the body of rules that governs a society and as the science that studies it.[6]

In several countries of the Americas the adjective is used of an honest person; in Central America and the Caribbean it can mean “lucky”.[16][17] In 1888 English took the word as a meteorological term for a straight-line windstorm.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 950 – the derivative deritura (later derechura) appears in the Glosas Emilianenses.[2][5]
  • 1010 – a Latin document has directum in the sense “justice, right”.[2][5]
  • 1056 – first record of the noun, in the form derecto, in a charter.[2][5]
  • 1129 – the form derecho appears in a charter.[2]
  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the adjective for “upright” and the noun for “justice”.[2][10]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of straight lines and the right hand.[12]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija renders derecho civil as Latin ius civile.[19]
  • 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, for the dues owed to the Crown.[20]
  • 1555 – the learned doublet directo is first recorded.[5]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias sets derecho against tuerto and lists the branches of law.[14]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from the participle directus for the first time.[21]
  • 1888 – English adopts derecho as a meteorological term.[18]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. straight, not bent or crooked; going in one direction: Esa línea no está derecha.[6][1]
  2. upright, erect: Siéntate derecho.[22][1]
  3. Just, legitimate; well founded, reasonable.[6]
  4. Going straight to a place or aim, direct.[6]
  5. Right, right-hand: on the side of the body opposite the heart, or on that side of an object or of a moving thing.[6][1]
  6. (Latin America) Of a person, honest.[16]
  7. (Central America, Caribbean, colloquial) Lucky, fortunate.[16][17]

Adverb

  1. Straight, directly, without detours: Volvió derecho a casa.[22]

Noun

  1. A right: the faculty of doing or demanding what the law or authority allows: el derecho de voto.[6][1]
  2. justice, what is right.[6]
  3. law: the body of principles and rules that govern relations in a society.[6][1]
  4. Law as a field of study, jurisprudence: estudiar derecho.[6][1]
  5. The right side of a cloth or garment, the side meant to be seen.[15][1]
  6. (in the plural) Fees, duties, taxes.[15][1]

Word family

  • derecha
  • derechura
  • derechista
  • derechero
  • directo
  • enderezar
  • aderezar
  • Latin dīrēctus
  • Portuguese direito
  • English derecho

Usage notes

The feminine derecha is used as a noun for the right hand, the right side and, in politics, the right.[6][1] A derechas means “properly, as it should be done”.[2][6] Common set phrases are derecho civil, derecho penal and Estado de derecho.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 445
  3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2276
  4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. derecho
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. derecho
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. derecho
  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. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1201
  10. ^ a b c d Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 211
  11. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 171
  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. derecho
  13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 287
  14. ^ 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. 646
  15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 286
  16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. derecho
  17. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 359
  18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 329
  20. ^ 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. derecho
  21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 349
  22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. derecho

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Derecho.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/derecho. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·