desgracia

Forms

desgracia f (plural desgracias)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish des- + gracia, literally the loss or lack of grace or favour.^[2][1][3][4] The base is a semi-learned form of Latin grātia (“favour, esteem”), from grātus (“pleasing”).^[5][6]

Corominas records the adjective desgraciado earlier (about 1400) than the noun, which he first finds in Nebrija; the verb desgraciar is later still, from about 1580.^[5] Terreros gave Italian disgrazia as the Italian equivalent of the noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first records are in the prose of Juan Fernández de Heredia: in his Gran crónica de España (1376–1391) men are en desgracia del rey “out of the king's favour”, and in his translation of Plutarch (1379–1384) a man would rather die than incur yra & desgracia “the anger and disfavour” of his fellow citizens.^[8][9] Corominas's first record is Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495), with desgracia en hablar “ungraceful speech”, Latin illepiditas.^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense, the loss of a powerful person's favour, lives on in caer en desgracia, which the Academy recorded in 1817.^[8][11][2] Nebrija's sense, lack of grace in speech or manner, is now obsolete.^[10][2] Covarrubias in 1611 defined the word as the bad luck that befalls someone who did not expect it, and Autoridades gave adversity and misfortune as the first sense, followed by enmity and by harshness in manner.^[12][4] A sense “poor health” was marked as old in 1817.^[11]

Today desgracia is chiefly a painful event or misfortune, and desgracias personales are the human casualties of an accident.^[2][13] In Argentina it was used for a child born outside marriage, and in Ecuador for a trifle.^[14][15] In the Spanish of the United States it can mean “dishonour” after the English word disgrace.^[16] The word passed into Tagalog as disgrasya.^[1]

Timeline

• 1376–1391 – Juan Fernández de Heredia uses en desgracia del rey “out of the king's favour”.^[8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has desgracia en hablar, Corominas's first record.^[5][9]
• 1567 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: estemos en su desgracia.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as unexpected bad luck.^[12]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses adversity, enmity and harshness.^[4]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records caer en desgracia.^[11]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the phrase por desgracia “unfortunately”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of someone who suffers a painful event; misfortune, adversity: Sus vecinos la ayudaron en la desgracia.^[2][1]
2. An event that causes pain or grief; an accident or disaster.^[2][1][13]
3. A state of unhappiness.^[2]
4. Bad luck.^[2][1]
5. Loss of someone's favour or friendship, especially in caer en desgracia “to fall from favour”.^[2][1]
6. (obsolete) Displeasure, sourness or harshness of manner.^[2][4]
7. (obsolete) Lack of grace or skill.^[2]

Related words

• desgraciado
• desgraciar
• gracia
• Italian disgrazia

Usage notes

Por desgracia means “unfortunately”, and desgracias personales (mostly plural) are the people killed or injured in an accident: No hubo desgracias personales en el incendio.^[2][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. desgracia
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. desgracia
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, 176
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 189
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 327
7. ^ 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, 644
8. ^ 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. desgracia
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 332
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 306
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. 656
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desgracia
14. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 170
15. ^ Tobar, Carlos R. (1907), Consultas al Diccionario de la lengua, 2nd ed., Barcelona: Imprenta de la Revista Ibérica, p. 194
16. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 53
17. ^ 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. desgracia
18. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 583