diferencia

Forms

diferencia f (plural diferencias)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote differencia and diferençia.^[2][3] The Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) keeps the Latin spelling differentia.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin differentia (“difference, distinction”), a learned word first recorded in Berceo.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The Latin noun is formed on differēns, the present participle of differō (“to carry apart; to differ”), with the abstract suffix -ia.^[9][1][10] The verb is made of dis- (“apart”) and ferō (“to carry”).^[1][8]

Spanish took the noun earlier than the verb diferir (mid-15th century) and the adjective diferente (1490), both from the same Latin family.^[6][5] The same Latin noun is the source of French différence and English difference.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and the CDH date the first record to Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy), where the priest, after the reading, a siniestro fiço su diferencia “made his move to the left”: the word there means a movement from one place to another.^[5][4][3] In Berceo's Milagros it already has the ordinary sense, mas ha grand diferencia de saver a cuidar “but there is a great difference between knowing and thinking”.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word means the quality that distinguishes one thing from another, variety within a kind, a discrepancy found by comparison, and in the astronomical works the remainder of a subtraction.^[13] Nebrija gave Latin differentia and distantia as its equivalents.^[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades called it a purely Latin word and added a term of logic, the essential attribute that distinguishes one nature from another, and the arithmetical sense, the excess of one quantity over another.^[15] The sense “dispute, disagreement between people” is recorded in the Americas from 1529, in Nicaragua.^[16] Baralt noted that every edition of the Academy's dictionary gave the sense “controversy”.^[17] The 1843 edition also has a term of music and dance, a variation in modulation or movement within the same beat.^[18] The 1884 edition was the first to give the Latin etymology.^[19]

In the Canary Islands, 17th-century documents use diferencia for a mark cut in the snout of an animal, especially a goat, to tell one owner's stock from another's.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (in a late 13th-century copy).^[4][5]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor has the Latin spelling differentia, the first record without a later copy.^[4]
• 1254–1260 – Alfonso X's astronomical works use it for the result of a subtraction.^[13]
• 1423 – the verb diferenciar is first recorded.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin differentia.^[14]
• 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua, in the sense “dispute”.^[16]
• 1645 – a Canarian document uses it for an earmark on livestock.^[20]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the senses of logic and arithmetic.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin differentia.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. difference: the quality or feature by which one thing is distinguished from another: No veo ninguna diferencia entre las dos fotos.^[7][1]
2. variety among things of the same kind.^[7]
3. A disagreement or dispute between two or more people: Resolvieron sus diferencias en una reunión.^[7][21]
4. (mathematics) The result of a subtraction, the remainder (resto).^[7][1]
5. (music, dance) A variation in modulation or movement made on an instrument or with the body within the same beat.^[7]

Word family

• diferenciar
• diferencial

Related words

• diferente
• diferir
• indiferencia
• Latin differentia
• French différence

Usage notes

A diferencia de means “unlike, in contrast to”.^[7][1] Partir la diferencia is to split the difference, each side giving way to meet in the middle.^[1][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. diferencia
3. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 193
4. ^ 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. diferencia
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 632
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. diferir
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. diferencia
8. ^ 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, p. s.v. diferencia
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 230
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 219
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 303
13. ^ 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. diferencia
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 336
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 274
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. diferencia
17. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 241
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 262
19. ^ 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. 385
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. diferencia
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. diferencia
22. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 251