domingo

Forms

domingo m (plural domingos)^[1] Old Leonese has diomingo and Old Castilian dieminga, with the word for “day” kept in front.^[2][3] An older form domínigo is recorded.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish domingo, inherited from Late Latin dominicus (“of the Lord”), short for diēs Dominicus (“the Lord's day, Sunday”).^[5][1][6] Corominas calls it a semi-learned descendant of the Latin word, and the learned doublets are domínica and domínico.^[6][7][1] The glossary of Berceo sets out the stages domeneco, domenego and, by syncope, domengo and finally the modern form.^[8]

diēs Dominicus is found from about AD 200 as the Christian name of the day, replacing diēs Sōlis (“day of the Sun”).^[1][9] Since Latin diēs was masculine or feminine, the feminine dominica was also used.^[4] Portuguese domingo has the same form; Catalan diumenge, Occitan dimenge and French dimanche keep the word for “day”, while Italian domenica and Romanian duminică continue the feminine.^[2][1]

dominicus “of a master” is derived from dominus (“master, lord”), which comes from domus (“house”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Disputa del alma y el cuerpo (c. 1201) opens with a vision seen „Un sábado esient, domingo amanezient” “as a Saturday was ending and a Sunday dawning”.^[12][6] The Fuero de Madrid, in a copy of the first half of the 13th century, sets a duty for „al primero domingo” “by the first Sunday”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 explained how the Christians had moved the weekly feast from the Sabbath to the day after, on which Christ rose.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades called Sunday the first day of the week, dedicated to the Lord in memory of the Resurrection, and the Academy kept “first day of the week” until the end of the 19th century; the 2001 edition made it the seventh day of the week and the first of the liturgical week.^[14][15][16]

Names of particular Sundays were recorded early: domingo de quasimodo and domingo de letare Iherusalem in Alfonso X, domingo de Ramos in Juan Ruiz, and the Academy's 1817 list adds the Sundays of Advent, of Lazarus and of Pentecost.^[17][18][19] In parts of the Americas salir con un domingo siete means to come out with an absurd remark (Salvá, 1846;^[20][21][22] Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico).^[20][21][22] In Mexico and Guatemala a child's weekly pocket money is called domingo.^[23][5] The word passed into Tagalog as linggo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1201 – the Disputa del alma y el cuerpo.^[12][6]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (in a 14th-century copy) has el domingo de los ramos.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has en dia de domingo.^[17]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria names the domingo de quasimodo.^[17]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses domingo dia with Latin dominicus dies.^[24]
• 1543 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[25]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the move of the feast from Saturday to Sunday.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá records domingo siete as American.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin dominicus dies.^[26]
• 2001 – the Academy calls it the seventh day of the week.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sunday: the seventh day of the week, a holiday for Christians and generally in the Western world: Los domingos comemos en casa de mis padres.^[5][1]
2. (Mexico, Guatemala) Weekly pocket money given to a child, usually on Sunday.^[5][23]
3. (Puerto Rico) A grey edible sea fish, Caulolatilus cyanops.^[23][27]

Word family

• dominguero
• dominguillo
• dominguejo
• domingada
• endomingarse

Related words

• domínica
• dominical
• dominico
• dueño
• Latin dominicus
• Catalan diumenge
• Italian domenica

Usage notes

Named Sundays include Domingo de Ramos “Palm Sunday”, Domingo de Resurrección “Easter Sunday” and Domingo de Cuasimodo, the second Sunday of Easter.^[5][28] The DLE's second headword, the proper name Domingo, only refers to the phrase mamey de Santo Domingo.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2340
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. domingo
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 238
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. domingo
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 529
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dueño
8. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. domingo
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. domingo
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dominus
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. domingo
13. ^ 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. 687
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 333
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 368
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. domingo
17. ^ a b c 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. domingo
18. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 196
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 335
20. ^ a b c Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 415
21. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 614
22. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 177
23. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. domingo
24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 338
25. ^ 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. domingo
26. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 398
27. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. domingo
28. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. domingo