ejemplar

Forms

ejemplar m or f (masculine and feminine plural ejemplares)^[1] Old Spanish spelt it exemplar and exenplar.^[2][3]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Latin exemplar (“copy; model, pattern”).^[4][5][1] The adjective is borrowed from Latin exemplāris (“serving as an example”).^[4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from exemplum (“example, sample”) with the suffix -ar;^[6][1] Wiktionary also explains it as the shortened neuter of the adjective.^[6][1]

The same Latin words gave Portuguese exemplar, Catalan exemplar, French exemplaire and Italian esemplare.^[1]

That noun goes back to *ex-em-lom, from eximō (“to take out”), itself ex- and emō (“to take; to buy”).^[7][1][8] The popular word of the family is ejemplo, Old Spanish enxiemplo.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest certain records are two biblical translations dated before 1260 and preserved in manuscripts of the mid-13th century.^[3] In the Libros de los Macabeos el exemplar daquestas is the copy of a set of letters sent to Simon; in the New Testament of the Escorial manuscript I-j-6 Moses is to make everything segund ell exemplar “after the pattern” that was shown to him on the mountain.^[3] DEMel cites exenplares from the Bocados de oro of about 1250.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The BDELC dates the noun to 1495, when Nebrija defined exemplar as the original “from which we copy”, and the adjective to 1541.^[4][10] DICCA-XV has both already in 1417.^[10] Terreros listed the senses “original”, “copy of a book or document”, “edifying” and “model, pattern”.^[11]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 had only an obsolete verb ejemplar “to copy a document”; that of 1843 added the adjective “giving a good example” and the noun senses “original, prototype”, “precedent”, “copy” and “case that serves as a warning”.^[12][13] The senses “individual of a species” and “object in a scientific collection”, now in the DLE, are later.^[5] In Mexico a text of 1583 already calls the idea of natural things their ydea o exemplar.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1260 – exemplar “copy” in the Libros de los Macabeos and “pattern” in a New Testament translation.^[3]
• 1417 – DICCA-XV's first record of the noun and the adjective.^[10]
• 1495 – Nebrija defines exemplar as the original from which a copy is made.^[4][10]
• 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla.^[14]
• 1541 – the BDELC's first record of the adjective.^[4]
• 1843 – the Academy records the adjective and the main noun senses.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy derives the word from Latin exemplar and exemplaris.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. exemplary: that serves as an example, worthy of imitation: Su conducta en la crisis fue ejemplar.^[5][1]
2. (of a castigo) That serves as a warning to others.^[16][5]

Noun

1. An original, a prototype; a representative norm.^[5]
2. A copy of a book, print, drawing or other reproduction made from one original: La biblioteca guarda tres ejemplares de esa edición.^[5][1]
3. A specimen: an individual of a species or genus: Vimos un ejemplar enorme de lince.^[5][1]
4. Each of the objects that make up a scientific collection.^[5]
5. A precedent: what has been done in a like case before.^[5]
6. A case that serves, or should serve, as a warning.^[5]

Word family

• ejemplaridad
• ejemplarizar

Related words

• ejemplario
• ejemplo
• Latin exemplar
• French exemplaire

Usage notes

Sin ejemplar says that something has never been seen before, or that a favour is an exception and will not be repeated.^[5] A separate verb ejemplar, formed from ejemplo, means “to illustrate with examples” (now rare) and in old use “to copy a document”.^[17][18] Alfonso X's General estoria uses it as “to make an example of”, and a Mexican chronicle as “to set an example”.^[19][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ejemplar
3. ^ 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. ejemplar
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ejemplo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ejemplar
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. exemplar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. exemplum
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2545
10. ^ a b c d 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. ejemplar
11. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 9
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 342
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 277
14. ^ 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. ejemplar
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 379
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ejemplar
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ejemplar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 409
19. ^ 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. ejemplar
20. ^ García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. ejemplar