doctorado

Forms

doctorado m (plural doctorados)^[1] The 16th-century texts also have the Latinising form doctorato.^[2]

Etymology

In the DLE it is borrowed from Medieval Latin doctoratus (“doctorate”).^[3] That word was formed from doctor (“teacher”) with the suffix -ātus.^[1] The 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary had instead derived the noun from the past participle of doctorar “to confer a doctor's degree”.^[4] Barcia gave both the noun and the participle.^[5] That verb is recorded from 1604, and the DLE derives it from doctorari.^[6][7] Corominas lists the noun among the derivatives of doctor.^[8][6]

The Latin noun is a derivative of doceō (“to tell, inform; teach”).^[9] The Spanish noun was long pronounced without its /k/, as late as the 17th century.^[8] The 19th-century dictionaries compare French doctorat and Catalan doctorat.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1493 and 1494 letters of King Ferdinand speak of a university in Sicily where students puedan ser doctorados “may be made doctors”: this is the participle of the verb.^[2] The noun first appears in the form doctorato in Pedro de Covarrubias's Memorial de pecados (1516), which asks the penitent whether he sought the magisterio o doctorato without merit.^[2] The form doctorado is in the Viaje de Turquía (1557–1558): me dieron con mucha honrra el doctorado “they gave me the doctorate with great honour”.^[2] Corominas's date for the noun is 1705.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1732) has only the participle, a man graduated as doctor, with a line of Cervantes.^[10] The noun “the degree of doctor” is in Salvá (1846) and in the Academy's dictionary from 1869, where it also covers the duties of a doctor.^[11][12][13] Alemany (1917) added the studies needed for the degree.^[14] The DLE now also gives the sense of a full, thorough knowledge of a subject.^[3] The first record from the Americas in Boyd-Bowman's lexicon is from Mexico City in 1970.^[15]

Timeline

• 1493 – the participle doctorados in a letter of King Ferdinand.^[2]
• 1516 – Pedro de Covarrubias writes doctorato.^[2]
• 1557–1558 – el doctorado in the Viaje de Turquía.^[2]
• 1604 – first record of the verb doctorar.^[6]
• 1705 – Corominas's first date for the noun.^[6]
• 1846 – Salvá defines the noun as the degree of doctor.^[11]
• 1869 – it enters the Academy's dictionary as a noun.^[12]
• 1917 – Alemany adds the sense “the studies for the degree”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doctorate, the degree of doctor: Obtuvo el doctorado en historia a los treinta años.^[3][16][1]
2. The course of study needed to obtain a doctorate.^[3][16]
3. Thorough, complete knowledge of a subject.^[3]

Related words

• doctorar
• doctoral
• doctorando
• docto

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. doctorado
3. ^ 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. doctorado
4. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. doctorado
5. ^ a b Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 238
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. doctor
7. ^ 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. doctorar
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 509
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 326
11. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 414
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 288
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 397
14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 612
15. ^ 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. doctorado
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. doctorado