divorcio

Forms

divorcio m (plural divorcios)^[1] Older texts spell it diuorçio, diborçio and devorçio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin divortium (“separation; divorce”).^[4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from dīvertō (“to turn aside, separate”), and so belongs with divertir and verter.^[6][7][8] That verb is dis- (“apart”) with vertō (“to turn”).^[1]

The same Latin word is French divorce, Portuguese divórcio and Catalan divorci.^[9][10][11] French borrowed it in 1320.^[9] Vox dates the Spanish borrowing to the 16th century and the DCECH to the middle of that century, in Pedro Mexía, but the CDH has it from the 1380s.^[12][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives (1379–1384), where a husband sends his wife a letra de diuorçio “letter of divorce”.^[2] The DEMel has a record in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (1256–1265).^[13] From the start the word meant the separation of a married couple, in contexts of Roman history and of church law.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In 1611 Covarrubias defines it as the separation of spouses when there are grounds for them not to live together, or when a judge declares that there was no marriage.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the same sense and, by extension, the separation of anything that was joined, quoting Quevedo on the ocean as the divorcio between distant shores.^[15] In 1843 the Academy added the dissolution of marriage by public authority “among ancient peoples and in some modern nations”, beside the church's separation from bed and board.^[16]

Today the word means the legal dissolution of a marriage at the request of one or both spouses, and figuratively a split between things that should be together.^[12][17] In Colombia divorcio was the name of a women's prison.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – the DEMel's record in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas.^[13]
• 1379–1384 – diuorçio in Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary glosses divortium as the parting of married people.^[20]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, devorçio in Mexico City.^[3]
• mid-16th century – Pedro Mexía, the DCECH's first record.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the separation of spouses.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the dissolution of marriage by public authority.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as the action of divorciar and gives the Latin etymon.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. divorce: the legal dissolution of a marriage: Tras diez años juntos, pidieron el divorcio.^[5][12][1]
2. A separation or split between things or people that are, or should be, united.^[12][17][1]
3. (Colombia) A women's prison.^[12][19]

Word family

• divorciar

Related words

• divertir
• verter
• Latin divortium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. divorcio
3. ^ 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. devorcio
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
5. ^ a b 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. divorcio
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dīuortium
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 236
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. divorcio
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. divorce
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1222
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. divorci
12. ^ a b c d e Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. divorcio
13. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. divorcio
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 684
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 320
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 269
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. divorcio
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. divorcio
19. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 371
20. ^ 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. divorcio
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 396