desde

Etymology

It is a compound from Old Spanish des (“from, since”) + de (“of, from”): the older preposition, which meant the same, was strengthened with a second one.^[2][3][4] Bénaben, following Alvar and Pottier, explains this by the loss of the sense of composition in the first part.^[4] The fused form is almost general from the 12th century, except in the old combinations des í (“from there, afterwards”), des ende and des que (“since”).^[2]

The older preposition continues Late Latin dē ex (“from out of”), of dē (“from”) and ex (“out of”), a combination attested in Vulgar Latin and in the Late Latin of the Peninsula.^[2][5][6] The DLE instead derives the whole word directly from three Latin prepositions in a row, the third being the same as the first.^[7] Gómez de Silva notes that the word is thus doubly pleonastic, meaning literally “from, from, from”.^[8] Meyer-Lübke preferred dē ipsō (“from (that place) itself”), and Sävborg defended that view in 1943.^[5][2] The REW and Corominas reject it because the combination with ⟨ex⟩ is found in Latin texts, and the DHLF does the same for French.^[5][2][9]

The same Latin combination gave French dès and Occitan des, used alone, while Portuguese desde and Catalan des de add the second preposition in the same way.^[2][10][9] Italian and other Romance languages use the parallel combination with ab, Italian da.^[2] Corominas says that dende and the Leonese desne were formed by crossing desende with this word.^[2] Wiktionary and García de Diego derive the first of these from deinde (“afterwards”), which the new preposition replaced.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) King Alfonso pardons the Cid and gives him a share in his kingdom desde oy “from this day on”.^[12][3] The Fuero de Madrid marks a boundary from a place, desde la fonte del mazano “from the spring of the apple tree”, and the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes asks Desde qual mes “from which month” the harvest is to be valued.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defines desde as marking the beginning of a place or a time, notes the sense “after” in desde a un año “a year later”, and its frequent use with ahora, luego and entonces.^[13] The construction desde a + a period of time was already common in the early records from the Americas (Darién 1520: desde ha ciertos días); Salvá marked it as old in 1846.^[14][15] The Academy's 1884 definition, the point in time or place from which something comes or starts to be counted, is still the DLE's first sense; the DLE has added the use for a point of view, desde mi punto de vista.^[16][7][17]

Desque “since, as soon as” lived on to the 16th century;^[2][18] Juan de Valdés already censured it in the sense “when”, though Mariana still used it and poets kept it into the 19th century, and it is alive in Asturias.^[2][18] Baralt in 1855 and Román in Chile condemned causal desde que “since, given that” as a Gallicism;^[19][20][21] DAMER records it today in Colombia and Chile.^[19][20][21] Desde ya was called an American barbarism by Alemany in 1917; the DLE now gives it as “right now, immediately”, and DAMER records it in Central America, Cuba, Colombia, Peru and Paraguay, and as “of course” in Peru and Bolivia.^[22][7][21]

Timeline

• 1054 – des odiem tempore “from this day” in a Latin charter of Oña, the first trace of des.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: desde oy.^[12][3]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes: Desde qual mes.^[12]
• 1220 – desne in an eastern Leonese document.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario: a vein running desde la corua fatal calcanno “from the back of the knee to the heel”.^[23]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders acompañar desde su casa by Latin deduco.^[24]
• 1520 – the first record from the Americas, in Darién: desde ha ciertos días.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades: the beginning of place and time, and “after”.^[13]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns causal desde que as a Gallicism.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's definition by the point in time or place from which something starts.^[16]
• 1917 – Alemany records desde ya as an American barbarism.^[22]

Meanings

Preposition

1. since, from: marks the point in time or place from which something comes, starts or is counted: Vivo aquí desde 2010. Te llamo desde la estación.^[7][1][25]
2. Starting at (a quantity or a price): habitaciones desde cuarenta euros.^[1]
3. After (with a and a period of time): desde a pocos días “a few days later”.^[7][13]
4. From the point of view of: Desde la economía, el plan no tiene sentido.^[7][26]

Related words

• de
• dende
• desque
• French dès
• Portuguese desde

Usage notes

Desde luego means “of course”, desde que “since (the time when)”, and desde ya “right now” (in Peru and Bolivia also “of course”).^[1][7][21] Rural speech in Mexico and elsewhere keeps the old dende, which Henríquez Ureña calls a survival of an archaic word, not a change of s to n.^[27] In Asturian dende and desque are the usual forms.^[28][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 459
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desde
4. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. desde
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. deex
7. ^ 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. desde
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 223
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. dès
10. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 72
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. deinde
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. desde
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. desde
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. desde
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 373
16. ^ 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. 361
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. desde
18. ^ a b c Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. desque
19. ^ a b c Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. s.v. desde
20. ^ a b 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. 104
21. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. desde
22. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 558
23. ^ 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. desde
24. ^ 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. desde
25. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desde
26. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. desde
27. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 53
28. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. dende