devoción

Forms

devoción f (plural devociones)^[1] Old Spanish spelt it devoçión, deuocion, deuoçión, devocion, and in a Latinising way devotión.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish devoçión, borrowed from Latin dēvōtiō (“a devoting; devotion”), a learned word first recorded in Berceo.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin noun is formed from dēvoveō (“to devote, consecrate”) with -tiō,^[7][1] and the verb from dē- and voveō (“to vow, promise”),^[1] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁uogʷʰ-eie- (“to promise”).^[8] devoto is the learned adjective from the participle dēvōtus, and voto is from the same verb.^[3][4]

The same Latin word is Portuguese devoção,^[9] Catalan devoció,^[10] French dévotion^[1] and Italian devozione.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first records are in Berceo's poems, dated 1228–1246 and known from later copies: in Del sacrificio de la misa whoever comes to take the peace or the blessed bread deve venir devoto con grant devocïón “should come devout, with great devotion”.^[12][4] The Fueros de Aragón of 1247, preserved in a contemporary copy, begin Establimos con deuocion... “we establish with devotion...”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word had named the self-sacrifice of a general to the gods of the underworld for his country, and in Late Latin “fealty, allegiance”; in Medieval Latin it meant “piety, worship”.^[7][13][14] Spanish took it in the religious sense: the Partidas compare a prayer said without devotion to the lowing of an ox.^[15] The sense of allegiance survives in estar a la devoción de alguien “to be under someone's sway of one's own will”, used in the Indies from 1539.^[5][16]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) defined it as the worship given to God, the Virgin and the saints, and the fervour with which one goes to church and to the sacraments, and also as a cordial inclination, a special liking.^[17] The plural names pious practices, as when Saint Teresa writes comencé a hacer devociones de Missas “I began to have devotional masses said”.^[17][5] In 1855 Baralt proposed devoción as the Spanish for French dévouement “devotedness”.^[18]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[4][3]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo uses devocïón in Del sacrificio de la misa (in an early 14th-century copy).^[12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón.^[12]
• 1256–1300 – the Siete Partidas on prayer without devotion.^[15]
• 1492 – Nebrija explains Latin devotio as an offering.^[19]
• 1539 – first record from the Americas, in New Granada, in the sense of allegiance.^[16]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the religious and the figurative senses.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives its Latin etymology.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. Religious love, veneration and fervor; devotion: Rezaba el rosario con mucha devoción.^[5][21][1]
2. A pious practice that is not obligatory.^[5]
3. A special inclination or fondness; deep admiration and attachment to a person or cause: Sentía devoción por su maestro.^[5][21]
4. A devout custom, and in general a good custom.^[5]
5. (religion) Readiness to worship God and do His will.^[5]

Word family

• devocionario

Related words

• devoto
• voto
• Latin devotio

Usage notes

No ser santo de mi devoción “not to be a saint of my devotion” is said of someone one does not like.^[21] Devoción de monjas was the habit of visiting nuns' parlours and talking with them.^[5][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. devoción
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 845
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voto
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. devoción
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 227
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. devoção
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. devoció
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 215
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. devoción
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
15. ^ 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. devoción
16. ^ 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. devoción
17. ^ 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. devoción
18. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 239
19. ^ 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. devoción
20. ^ 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. 379
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. devoción