escribano

Forms

escribano m (plural escribanos, feminine escribana, feminine plural escribanas)^[1] Old Spanish first had escriván (1111), then escrivano from about 1200; the medieval texts write escriuano, escrivano, escriuan and scribano.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish escriván, inherited from Vulgar Latin *scrībānem (“scribe”), a form of scrība (“clerk, scribe”) with a changed declension.^[2][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from scrībō (“to write”).^[6] The longer form escrivano appears from about 1200.^[2] The learned escriba is its doublet.^[2][1]

The same form is Portuguese escrivão, Galician escribán, Catalan escrivà, Occitan escrivan, French écrivain and Italian scrivano.^[7][1] Nascentes notes that the plural escrivães confirms the derivation.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is escriván in a charter of 1111, published by Menéndez Pidal in his Orígenes.^[2][4] The form escrivano is in the Auto de los Reyes Magos of about 1200 and in a charter of 1202.^[2] It often meant an author or writer, as in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has both the notary and the copyist who wrote for hire.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 explained that the word first fitted any man who could read and write, then those who earned their living with the pen, copying books before printing.^[10] Autoridades kept the general sense but said that common usage meant the public officer who drew up deeds with authority from the king or a magistrate, of many kinds: royal, of the town council, of the chamber.^[11] The old sense of a good penman, gran escribano, is in Mateo Alemán and Cervantes.^[12][13]

In 1869 the Academy noted that notaries now drew up deeds and that escribanos kept the public faith in court proceedings.^[14] In Spanish America escribano is still the word for a notary.^[15] It names birds of the bunting family in Spain, and fishes and a wading bird in Cuba and Puerto Rico.^{[5][16][17][15]} In southern Peru it is an appetiser of potato, rocoto and tomato served in the picanterías.^[16]

Timeline

• 1111 – escriván in a charter.^[2][4]
• c. 1200 – escrivano in the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the escriuano who holds a royal office.^[9]
• 1495 – the derivative escribanía.^[4]
• 1526 – first record in the Americas, in Panama: the escrivano de minas.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the word; the learned escriba appears the same year.^[10][4]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Late Latin scribanus.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated in Spain, Latin America) A notary: a person authorised by public office to attest deeds and other acts done before them.^[5][15][1]
2. A scrivener or penman, a person with fine handwriting (pendolista).^[5][1]
3. A bunting: a seed-eating songbird with a short, broad-based bill, the males brightly coloured.^[5][1]
4. (obsolete, rural) A writing master or schoolmaster.^[5]
5. (obsolete) A clerk (escribiente).^[5]

Word family

• escribanía
• escribanil

Related words

• escriba
• escribir
• escritor
• Latin scrība
• French écrivain

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 711
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. escribano
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escribir
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. escribano
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 693
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escrivão
9. ^ 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. escribano
10. ^ 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. 771
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 572
12. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 487
13. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 281
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 327
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escribano
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. escribano
17. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 140
18. ^ 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. escribano
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 451