edad

Forms

edad f (plural edades)^[1] Old Spanish wrote edat, hedat, hedad and heedat, with final -t in the older texts.^[2] Old Leonese had eidat.^[3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish edat, inherited from Latin aetās (“life, lifetime; age”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word is contracted from archaic aevitās, a derivative of aevum (“duration, time, life, age”).^[4][7]

The same Latin word is Catalan edat and Occitan edat.^[8] Italian età, Portuguese idade, Galician idade and Old Leonese eidat instead point to the older form with aevitās.^[8][3] French âge continues a derivative, eage.^[8]

aevum goes back to *aiwom (“period, age”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“long time, lifetime”).^[1] The Oxford Latin Dictionary compares Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn), the source of Spanish eón.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in the sense “age”: the Cid's daughters are too young to marry, „ca non han grant edad e de días pequeñas son” “for they are not of great age and are young in days”.^[10][4] The Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211) uses edat for an age of the world: „Tro aqui a una edat & x generaciones” “up to here, one age and ten generations”.^[10] The first hit with no later copy is a document of Ferdinand III of 1230, about heirs who „non eran de edad de otorgar” “were not of age to consent”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the time a person or animal has lived, the stages of human life, the great periods of history and a span of years.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 divides human life into seven ages, from infancy to decrepitude, and the history of the world into six, from Adam to the end of the world.^[12] He also has menor de edad “under age”.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades repeats both divisions and adds the four ages of the poets, of gold, silver, copper and iron.^[13]

Salvá in 1846 defines the Edad Media as the time from the 5th century to the middle of the 15th.^[14] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 divides profane history into the ancient, middle and modern ages.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 adds the duration of material things.^[16] The adjective medieval entered the Academy's dictionary after 1884;^[4] Corominas thinks it was formed in English, where it is recorded from 1827.^[4] In Mexico and Cuba the adolescent years are la edad de la punzada.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4][5][10]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum uses edat for an age of the world.^[10]
• 1230 – a document of Ferdinand III, the first text not known from a later copy.^[10]
• 1270–1284 – the first part of the Estoria de España uses it for a period of history.^[11]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin aetas and aevum as its equivalents.^[18]
• 1516 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the seven ages of man and the six ages of the world.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the four ages of the poets.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá defines the Edad Media.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. aetas” and the duration of things.^[16]
• 1917 – Alemany divides history into three ages.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. age: the time a person, animal or plant has lived: Mi abuela nunca dice su edad.^[6][1]
2. The duration of some things and abstract entities.^[6]
3. Each of the stages into which human life is divided: la edad adulta.^[6][20]
4. Each of the great periods into which history is divided: la Edad Media.^[6][1]
5. A span of years, an era.^[6]
6. Mature age: una señora de edad “an elderly lady”.^[6][20]
7. (geology) An age, a period of the Earth's history.^[1][20]

Word family

• edadismo
• sobreedad

Related words

• etario
• coetáneo
• eterno
• evo
• eón
• medieval
• Latin aetās
• Portuguese idade

Usage notes

Common phrases are mayor de edad “of age”, menor de edad “under age”, tercera edad “old age” and edad del pavo “awkward age, early adolescence”.^[1][21] Baralt in 1855 criticised presidente de edad, the eldest member who chairs a body, as a gallicism.^[22]

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. edad
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 239
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 545
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. edad
6. ^ 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. edad
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. aetās
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. aetās
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. aevum
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. edad
11. ^ 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. edad
12. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 702
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 368
14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 423
15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 626
16. ^ 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. 407
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. edad
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 340
19. ^ 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. edad
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. edad
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. edad
22. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 249