ejemplo

Forms

ejemplo m (plural ejemplos)^[1] Old Spanish forms include enssiemplo, ensiemplo, enxiemplo, exiemplo, exemplo, ensienpro and enxienpro.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish exemplo, borrowed from Latin exemplum (“sample; example, model”).^[2][5][1] Old Spanish read the ⟨x⟩ with its native value /ʃ/ instead of the Latin /ks/;^[1] Wiktionary compares ejército and the inherited enjambre.^[1] Early forms such as enxiemplo and ensiemplo also have a diphthong and an added ⟨n⟩.^[2][4]

The same Latin word is Portuguese exemplo, Galician exemplo, Catalan exemple and Italian esempio.^[1][6] Catalan has it from about 1200, with a common Old Catalan variant eximpli that Coromines ascribes to an added suffix or to the Medieval Latin phrase exempli gratia.^[7]

The Latin word meant first “what is taken out as a sample”.^[8] It comes from eximō (“to take out”), formed from Latin ex- (“out”) + emō (“to take; to buy”).^[2][1][9] The OLD reconstructs *ex-em-lom, and Wiktionary explains the ⟨p⟩ as a glide between /m/ and /l/, as in amplus, though Leumann found the voiceless glide unusual.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the plural: the Cid's daughters beg the Infantes of Carrión atán malos ensiemplos non fagades sobre nós “do not make such a wicked example of us”.^[11][2] In Berceo (Santo Domingo, c. 1236) Christ fasts in the desert pora nos dar enxiemplo “to give us an example”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the main modern senses: a thing worth imitating, conduct that leads others to imitate it, and a fact or text cited to prove a statement, as well as the phrase dar ejemplo.^[12] In medieval Latin exemplum was also a parable or fable told as a lesson.^[13]

Covarrubias in 1611 notes that exemplo used alone is taken in a good sense, though one also says dar mal exemplo; it also meant a comparison and a copy taken from a book or picture, of which exemplar was the original.^[14] Terreros records por ejemplo as the equivalent of Latin verbi gratia.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1817, spelling it ejemplo, marks the sense “copy” as old and adds ejemplo casero, an example drawn from everyday things.^[16] The DLE still lists “copy of a book” as an obsolete sense.^[5] Puerto Rico says como por ejemplo for por ejemplo.^[17] Spanish lent the word to Hiligaynon ehemplo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – ensiemplos in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[11][2]
• c. 1200 – exienplo in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[11]
• c. 1236 – enxiemplo in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[11]
• c. 1250 – enxienplo in the Poridat de las poridades, the first record in a manuscript of its own time.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija writes exemplo and has the verb exemplificar.^[18][2]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, enxemplo, in Tierra Firme.^[19]
• 1541 – the adjective ejemplar is first recorded.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias spells it exemplo.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary has ejemplo, with dar ejemplo and por ejemplo.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy first gives the etymology and the sense “fact or text cited to prove a statement”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A case or deed from the past put forward to be imitated if good or avoided if bad.^[5]
2. example: conduct that may lead others to imitate it: Su constancia es un ejemplo para sus compañeros.^[5][1]
3. An instance: a fact, text or sentence cited to prove or illustrate a statement: Pon un ejemplo de cada caso.^[5][1]
4. (obsolete) A copy of a book or print, an ejemplar.^[5]

Related words

• ejemplificar
• eximir
• Latin exemplum
• Portuguese exemplo

Usage notes

Por ejemplo “for example” introduces an illustration, and dar ejemplo means “to set an example”.^[5][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ejemplo
3. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 182
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2545
5. ^ 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. ejemplo
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1497
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 828
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 249
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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. ejemplo
12. ^ 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. ejemplo
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
14. ^ 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. 820
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 342
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 177
18. ^ 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. ejemplo
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. ejemplo
20. ^ 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