escrutinio

Forms

escrutinio m (plural escrutinios)^[1] The Partidas and 15th-century texts spell it scrutinio; 17th-century documents from Lima also have escrutiño.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin scrūtinium (“search, examination”), a learned word.^[4][5][1][6] The Latin noun is derived from scrūtor (“to search, examine”), with an obscure ending, and first meant a search for something hidden.^[7][8] The verb apparently comes from scrūta (“rags, trash”), its first sense being “to sort rags”.^[7][1] In Medieval Latin the noun also meant the examination of candidates for baptism and the collecting of votes.^[9]

The inherited verb of the same family is escudriñar, Old Spanish escrudiñar, from a Vulgar Latin verb *scrūtiniāre formed on the noun.^[4][10] García de Diego notes that no popular Romance form of the noun is known, apart from Old Spanish escudriño “searching”.^[6][11] A cross of this word with escudriñador produced escrutiñador, found in some editions of the Quijote.^[4]

Other languages have French scrutin, Italian scrutinio and Catalan escrutini, and the English word is scrutiny.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Primera Partida (1256–1263, in a copy of about 1290) names three ways of electing a prelate: que llaman a la primera dellas scrutinio, a la segunda compromisso, a la tercera de Spiritu Sancto “the first of which they call scrutinio, the second compromisso, the third by the Holy Spirit”.^[2][14][11] The DCECH's first record is later, Luis de Babia in 1572–1591.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word also meant a careful examination;^[15] Palencia in 1490 uses it for any inquiry.^[2] In Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 Latin scrutinium is glossed el escudruñar.^[15] Cervantes calls the examination and burning of Don Quixote's books el donoso y grande escrutinio.^[16] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as the examination made in elections by voting.^[17] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave both senses, a diligent examination and the counting of secret votes, and described the scrutiny as the most common of the three ways of canonical election.^[18][18] From 1843 the Academy no longer limited the counting of votes to the choice of a person for an office.^[19][20] Vox also records the checking of football-pool coupons to find the winners.^[21]

Timeline

• 1256–1263 – scrutinio for a way of electing in Alfonso X's Primera Partida.^[2][14]
• 1490 – Palencia uses scrutinio for an inquiry.^[2]
• 1572–1591 – the first record in the DCECH, in Luis de Babia.^[4][10]
• 1575 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico, for an election by votes.^[3]
• 1605 – the escrutinio of Don Quixote's library.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the examination in elections.^[17]
• 1884 – first record of the learned verb escrutar.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A careful and exact examination of something in order to judge it; scrutiny: El informe no resistió el escrutinio de los expertos.^[5][1]
2. The counting of the votes in an election or a similar act: El escrutinio terminó de madrugada.^[5][1][22]
3. The checking of betting slips to find the winners.^[21]

Related words

• escrutar
• escrutiñar
• escudriñar
• escrutador
• French scrutin

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. escrutinio
3. ^ 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. escrutíneo
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 714
5. ^ a b c 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. escrutinio
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5998
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escudriñar
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. escrutinio
12. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 205
13. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 693
14. ^ 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. escrutinio
15. ^ a b 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. escrutinio
16. ^ a b 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. 488
17. ^ 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. 775
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 575
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 382
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 314
21. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. escrutinio
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escrutinio