desacreditar

Forms

desacreditar (first-person singular present desacredito, first-person singular preterite desacredité, past participle desacreditado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish des- + acreditar, with the prefix of reversal or negation.^[2][1][3][4] Corominas lists it under creer, among the learned words of the family of crédito, which he takes from the mid-16th-century crēditum (“loan, debt”); acreditar is dated 1546 and the verb itself 1581.^[5][6] Segura Munguía files the family under accrēdō (“to believe, give credit to”).^[6]

The Latin noun is the neuter past participle of crēdō (“to believe, trust”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest CDH hit is in Antonio de Guevara's Epístolas familiares (1521–1543), in the participle: más aprovechará en la república uno sólo que tenga crédito que ciento desacreditados “one man who has credit will do the commonwealth more good than a hundred discredited ones”.^[7] The sense, “deprived of reputation”, is the modern one.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The CDH antedates Corominas's date of 1581 by several decades: Bartolomé de las Casas, Luis de Granada and Guevara's Menosprecio de corte of 1539 all use the verb, often in the pronominal form desacreditarse “to lose one's good name”.^[7][5] From 1560 it is recorded in Yucatán and later in Potosí and Peru.^[8]

The 1732 Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as taking away or lessening someone's reputation or credit, and adds a second sense, to disguise or belie one thing with another, illustrated by a volcano that hides its fire under its snow.^[4] Terreros called that second sense poetic,^[9] Salvá marked it as little used and Gaspar y Roig as old.^[10][11] Since the Academy's 1884 edition the definition has been the one the DLE keeps, to lessen or take away the reputation of a person or the value and esteem of a thing.^[12][2]

Timeline

• 1521–1543 – the participle desacreditados in Guevara's Epístolas familiares, the first CDH hit.^[7]
• 1539 – Guevara's Menosprecio de corte y alabanza de aldea.^[7]
• 1546 – first record of the base acreditar, according to Corominas.^[5]
• 1554 – Luis de Granada uses the pronominal desacreditarse.^[7]
• 1560 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[8]
• 1581 – the date Corominas gives for the word.^[5]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records it with the senses “to discredit” and “to disguise, belie”.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the definition still in use.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To discredit: to lessen or take away the reputation (reputación) of someone, or the value and esteem of something: Aquel escándalo desacreditó a toda la empresa.^[2][13][1]
2. (pronominal) desacreditarse: to lose one's good name or the esteem of others.^[13][10]
3. (obsolete) To disguise or belie one thing with another.^[4][11]

Related words

• descrédito
• crédito
• desprestigiar

Usage notes

Cuervo and Alemany record it with con, para, para con, en and entre: desacreditarse con los sabios, en su profesión, entre compañeros.^[14][15] Moliner notes that it takes a even with a thing as its object.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. desacreditar
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. desacreditar
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 91
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. creer
6. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 9
7. ^ 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. desacreditar
8. ^ 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. desacreditar
9. ^ 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, 615
10. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 360
11. ^ a b Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 752
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. 351
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desacreditar
14. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 546
15. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 944