entonces

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish entonces, inherited from Vulgar Latin *intunce, a compound of Latin in (“in”) and archaic *tunce, from which classical tunc (“then”) comes.^[2][3][1] The Academy derives the modern form from the older entonce.^[4] The classical adverb is tum (“then”) with the demonstrative particle -ce, as in nunc.^[2][5][1] The final /s/ is the adverbial one of antes, mientras, después and más.^[2][6][7]

Corominas sees in the forms beginning with ⟨es⟩ the Latin combination with ex (“from”), found already in Avitus (died 515), and García de Diego explains Old Spanish enestonces as a mix of the two.^[2][8] Portuguese então comes from the classical form without the final vowel; the other Romance languages lost the Latin adverb in its temporal sense.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the form estonces: Estonces se mudó el Cid al puerto de Alucant “then the Cid moved to the pass of Alucant”.^[10][2] The form entonces itself is first found about 1250 in the Setenario.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses the word both for “at that time” and for “in that case, that being so”.^[11] Juan de Valdés still has stonces in his Diálogo de la lengua, while Nebrija already gave entonces, with Latin tunc and tum.^[2][12] Covarrubias called it a corruption of Latin tunc.^[13]

The Academy's dictionaries of 1817 and 1843 give only the temporal sense; the conditional sense “in that case” was added in the 1869 edition, after Gaspar y Roig had described it as a conditional particle.^{[14][15][16][17]} The noun phrase en aquel entonces “at that time” is in the dictionary from 1884.^[18] In Mexico, Puerto Rico and Argentina entonces is also used as a continuative “so, well”, and in Panama and Venezuela ¿entonces? serves as a greeting.^[19][20][21]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – estonces in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[10][2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – entonce in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[10]
• c. 1250 – first record of entonces, in the Setenario.^[2][3]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz has entonces in the Libro de buen amor.^[22][2]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario has entonces.^[12]
• 1528 – first record from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata, as estonzes.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin tunc.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “in that case”.^[16]

Meanings

Adverb

1. then; at that time, moment or occasion: Llegó tarde y entonces nos fuimos.^[4][1]
2. (after a preposition) That time, that moment: desde entonces, los coches de entonces.^[4]
3. In that case; so, therefore: —No tengo hambre. —Entonces no prepares la cena.^[4][1]

Interjection

1. pues entonces: used to say that what was said justifies something.^[4][24]

Word family

• en aquel entonces
• por entonces

Related words

• pues
• entonce
• Latin tunc
• Portuguese então

Usage notes

Por entonces and en aquel entonces mean “at that time”.^[4][18][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 643
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. entonces
4. ^ 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. entonces
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3539
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
11. ^ 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. entonces
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 346
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. 748
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 316
17. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 879
18. ^ 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. 436
19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 494
20. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 186
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
22. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C.
23. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos