desobediencia

Forms

desobediencia f (plural desobediencias)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote desobediençia and desobedencia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish des- + obediencia.^[1][4][5] The base is from Latin oboedientia (“obedience”), from the verb oboediō (“to obey”), which Latin formed from audiō (“to hear”).^[5][6] Latin itself said inobedientia, the equivalent that Nebrija and Autoridades give.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest CDH hit is in the Poridat de las poridades (c. 1250, Escorial manuscript), in a pair with the base word: por tal de saber la uuestra obediençia o la uuestra desobediençia “so as to know your obedience or your disobedience”.^[3] DEMel's earliest primary records are the Purgatorio de San Patricio of the 13th century and the Bocados de oro of about 1250, with the form desobedencia.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254) the retrograde motion of a planet signifies anger, disobedience and lies.^[7][3] The Primera Partida uses the word to explain a learned term: Contumacia es palabra de latín, e quier tanto dezir en romanz cuemo desobediencia e desmandamiento “contumacia is a Latin word, and in Romance it means disobedience and defiance of orders”.^[3] The CDH thus antedates by three centuries the date of 1570 that Corominas gives.^[6][3]

Autoridades in 1732 defines it as failure to obey the orders of a superior, and the Academy has defined it since 1884 as the act and effect of disobeying.^[4][8][9] The phrase desobediencia civil, peaceful resistance to the demands of established power, is in the DLE and Moliner.^[9][10]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Poridat de las poridades, the first CDH hit.^[3]
• c. 1250 – the Bocados de oro, with the form desobedencia.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas.^[7][11]
• 1256–1263 – the Primera Partida glosses Latin contumacia with it (in a copy of about 1290).^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija renders Latin inobedientia with it.^[5]
• 1541 – the first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[12]
• 1570 – the date Corominas gives for the word.^[6]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records it.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as the act and effect of disobeying.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. disobedience: the act and effect of disobeying (desobedecer): Lo castigaron por desobediencia a sus superiores.^[9][4][1]
2. desobediencia civil: civil disobedience, peaceful resistance to the orders or demands of the established power.^[9][10]

Related words

• desobedecer
• desobediente
• obedecer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. desobediencia
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. desobediencia
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 202
5. ^ a b c d 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. desobediencia
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. obedecer
7. ^ 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. desobediencia
8. ^ 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. 371
9. ^ 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. desobediencia
10. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desobediencia
11. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. desobediencia
12. ^ 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. desobediencia