deudor

Forms

deudor m (plural deudores, feminine deudora, feminine plural deudoras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote debdor, also depdor, deubdor and debedor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish debdor, inherited from Latin dēbitor (“debtor”), from dēbeō (“to owe”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} Autoridades notes that the word was formerly spelt with ⟨bd⟩.^[7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese devedor, Galician debedor, Catalan deutor, Old French detour and Romanian dator.^[8][9][1] Italian debitore and French débiteur are learned forms.^[9][10]

The Latin verb for “to owe” is itself derived from Latin habeō (“to have”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates debdor to a charter of 1219.^[3][4] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar and the Fuero Juzgo it is the person who owes money; the Fuero Juzgo names debdores beside manleuadores “guarantors”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Besides money, Old Spanish used the word for any moral debt: Berceo writes por su deudor me tengo “I hold myself his debtor”.^[13] Autoridades in the 18th century defined it as anyone bound to pay a debt, usually money, and quoted a religious text calling the sinner God's debtor.^[7]

The adjective use, as in cuenta deudora for a bookkeeping account with a sum on its debit side, is in the DLE.^[5] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 record the proverb El deudor no muera, que la deuda en pie se queda, the hope of being paid while the debtor lives.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1219 – first record, as debdor, in a charter.^[3][4]
• 1200–1250 – debdor appears in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[11]
• 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo lists debdores.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin debitor.^[16]
• 1521 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba, still as debdor.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a debter”.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the older form debdor.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin debitor.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Who owes something or is bound to pay a debt: La empresa deudora pidió más plazo.^[5][1]
2. (accounting) Of an account: having a sum to be entered on its debit side.^[5]

Noun

1. A debtor: Los deudores no pagaron a tiempo.^[5][1][19]

Related words

• deber
• deuda
• débito
• acreedor
• Latin dēbitor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. deudor
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 429
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. deber
5. ^ 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. deudor
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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, 248
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2125
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
12. ^ 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. deudor
13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 300
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 350
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 334
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos