ejército

Forms

ejército m (plural ejércitos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote exército or exérçito;^[2][1] Wiktionary gives exército as an alternative form.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish exército, borrowed from Latin exercitus (“physical exercise; army”), a learned word.^[1][3][4][5] The DCECH explains the Latin noun as properly “a body of men trained for war”.^[4] Like ejemplo, the borrowing was read with the Old Spanish value of ⟨x⟩, /ʃ/, rather than /ks/, and so took the modern /x/ and the spelling ⟨j⟩.^[1]

The Latin noun is an action noun from exerceō (“to keep busy, exercise”) with the suffix -tus.^[6][1] The verb is a compound of arceō (“to contain, keep out”), as Corominas and de Vaan both say.^[4][7] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European causative verb meaning “to hold”, and compares Ancient Greek ἀρκέω (arkéō, “to ward off, defend; to suffice”).^[7] Wikcionario gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *h₂erk-.^[8]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan exèrcit, Italian esercito and Asturian exércitu.^[9][10][11] Spanish passed it on to Guarani ehérsito and Tagalog ehersito.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit, in the Avisación de la dignidad real (after 1325), survives only in a copy of 1449.^[2] The first text without a later copy is Juan Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España (1376–1391): sallio de Valladolid con todo su exercito et fue a Palencia “he left Valladolid with all his army and went to Palencia”.^[2] Corominas dates the word to about 1440, in Juan de Mena and the Marquis of Santillana.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word entered Castilian as a learned term, used by Mena, Santillana and Alfonso de Palencia in the 15th century and by Pero Mejía in 1545.^[4] It replaced the medieval word for an army, hueste, only slowly.^[4] Nebrija and Pedro de Alcalá still give only hueste, and Nebrija glosses Latin exercitus as la ueste de gentes.^[4][12] By the Quijote it already sounds like an everyday word.^[4] In the Americas it is recorded from 1532, in Mexico.^[13]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 describes an army as a great number of soldiers of infantry and cavalry under a general, and records the thieves' slang sense “prison”.^[14][15] Domínguez (1846) adds “swarm, crowd, multitude”, a sense the Academy then left out.^[16] The 1899 edition adds “the land forces of a nation”.^[17] In old Aragon ejército was also the name of a tax.^[18]

Timeline

• after 1325 – exerçito real in the Avisación de la dignidad real (in a copy of 1449).^[2]
• 1376–1391 – exercito in Juan Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España.^[2]
• 1417 – the first record in DICCA-XV.^[12]
• c. 1440 – Juan de Mena and the Marquis of Santillana use exército.^[4][5]
• 1492 – Nebrija still glosses Latin exercitus with hueste.^[12]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records the slang sense “prison”.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “land forces of a nation”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. An army: the land or air forces of a nation, often written with a capital: el Ejército del Aire.^[3][19][1]
2. (military) A large unit made up of several army corps together with other units and services.^[3]
3. A large group organised for a purpose, a host: un ejército de voluntarios.^[3][19]
4. (historical) A body of troops with their equipment under one command.^[3]
5. (thieves' slang, obsolete) A prison.^[14][15]

Related words

• ejercer
• ejercitar
• ejercicio
• hueste
• Latin exercitus
• Italian esercito

Usage notes

Ejército is written with a capital when it names a particular army or branch of the forces: Ejército de Tierra, Ejército del Aire.^[19][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ejército
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. ejército
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 548
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ejercer
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. exèrcit
10. ^ 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. 75
11. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. exércitu
12. ^ a b c 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. ejército
13. ^ 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. ejército
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 342
15. ^ a b Salillas, Rafael (1896), El delincuente español: el lenguaje, Madrid: Victoriano Suárez, p. 288
16. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 660
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 379
18. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 14
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ejército
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ejército