desobediente

Forms

desobediente m or f (masculine and feminine plural desobedientes)^[1] Old Spanish texts of the 13th century often drop the final vowel, desobedient, and Berceo has desobedïent with a diaeresis in the verse.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish des- + obediente, the negative of the adjective for “obedient”.^[4][1][5] The 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary described it instead as the old present participle of desobedecer, and the Academy's editions from Autoridades to 1899 class it as the active participle of that verb.^[6][7][8] The base obediente was taken from Latin oboediēns in the first half of the 13th century, and the verb obedecer from oboediō (“to obey”).^[9]

The Latin verb is formed from ob- and audiō (“to hear”), and at first meant “to listen, pay attention to”.^[10][9] Latin itself used inobediens for “disobedient”, the equivalent Nebrija gives.^[11][12] The same formation is Catalan desobedient, French désobéissant and Italian disubbidiente.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates desobediente and desobedecer to 1495, but the word is much older.^[9][2] The Poridat de las poridades, a text of about 1250 in an Escorial manuscript, speaks of peoples who ruled over others and were desobedientes a los Reyes “disobedient to the kings”.^[2] Hermann the German's psalter translation of 1240–1272 has desobedient es a Dios “is disobedient to God”, and the Aragonese Vidal Mayor of about 1250 uses the word of a party who does not obey the arbitrator.^[2] Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254) has the noun use, daquel desobedient “of that disobedient man”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “who does not obey”, with a before the person disobeyed, as with obediente.^[14][4] Autoridades defined it as someone who does not carry out what a superior lawfully orders, quoting a manual that speaks of a wife desobediente à su marido.^[7] Domínguez in 1846 adds a nautical use, of a ship slow to answer the helm.^[15] The second sense “inclined to disobey” was added by Alemany in 1917 and is in the DLE.^[16][4] The word was in use in the Americas by 1546, in Santo Domingo.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – desobedientes a los Reyes in the Poridat de las poridades;^[3][18] desobedient in the Vidal Mayor.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas uses the word as a noun.^[3][18]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates desobediente cosa by Latin inobediens.^[12][11]
• 1495 – Corominas's date for the word.^[9]
• 1546 – first record in the Americas, at Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1732 – Autoridades calls it the active participle of desobedecer.^[7]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the nautical sense, of a ship slow to obey the helm.^[15]
• 1917 – Alemany adds the sense “inclined to disobey”.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. disobedient: who does not obey; also as a noun, a disobedient person: Los alumnos desobedientes se quedaron sin recreo.^[4][1]
2. Inclined to disobey, undutiful; also as a noun.^[4][1][19]

Word family

• desobediencia

Related words

• desobedecer
• obediente
• obedecer
• Latin oboediēns

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. desobediente
3. ^ a b c d 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. desobediente
4. ^ a b c d e 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. desobediente
5. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. desobediente
6. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. desobediente
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 202
8. ^ 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 Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. obedecer
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 333
13. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto
14. ^ 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, 1120
15. ^ a b 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. 591
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 569
17. ^ 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
18. ^ a b 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
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desobediente