especie

Forms

especie f (plural especies)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin species (“sight, appearance; type, kind; goods”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas's first records are of the 15th century, from the Corbacho (1438), Juan de Mena and Santillana on.^[2][3] The CDH has it in an Aragonese text of 1264, and the DTME dates it from the same year.^[5][6]

especia “spice” is a doublet of the same Latin word.^[2][3] It comes from the sense “article of trade, merchandise”, already Latin, and though also learned it is older, from about 1250.^[2][3] Medieval Latin used species for valuables, merchandise, spices, drugs and medicines.^[7] Juan Manuel used the form ⟨especie⟩ in the spice sense, as an Aragonese inventory of 1373 also does.^[2]

The learned word is also Portuguese espécie, Catalan espècie, French espèce and Italian specie, while French épice “spice” is the French popular outcome.^{[8][9][10][1]} In philosophy the Latin noun translated Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos, “form, kind”).^[10]

The Latin noun is formed from the archaic verb speciō (“to look at, observe”).^[2][11][12] De Vaan traces that verb to Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”), the root of Sanskrit and Avestan verbs of seeing.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Aragonese agreement of 1264 between the priors of Luna and Naval already has the abstract sense: sines ninguna otra specie de provacion “without any other kind of proof”.^[5] A letter of James II of Aragon of 1315 says that a princess had fallen into especie de etica “a kind of consumption”.^[5] Alfonso de Palencia writes carbaso es una especie de lino “carbasus is a kind of flax”, and Nebrija gives Latin genus and species for especie de cosas.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

The Golden Age used the word in the language of logic, for the class under a genus (especie de hombres, de caballos). In the philosophy of perception it meant the image that an object sends to the senses, and then the idea or act of imagining itself.^[14] The Academy's dictionaries add “case, matter, affair” (se trató de aquella especie), “pretext” and a fencing thrust.^[15] In 1869 they add the voices of a musical composition and the sacramental species of the Eucharist, with phrases such as soltar una especie “to drop a remark to sound people out”.^[16] The biological sense, a subdivision of the genus, first appears in the 1899 edition.^[17][18]

En especie “in kind, not in money” is recorded in Mexico in 1565 (tributar en especie). It is also part of Chilean legal language.^[19][20] In Honduras and the Dominican Republic a masculine especie is a piece of malicious gossip.^[21] In Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ecuador the plural still means “spices”.^[21]

Timeline

• 1264 – an Aragonese agreement: otra specie de provacion.^[5][6]
• 1315 – a letter of James II of Aragon: especie de etica.^[5]
• 1373 – an Aragonese inventory has especie for “spice”.^[2]
• 1438 – the Corbacho, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives genus and species.^[13]
• 1552 – the first record from the Americas, in Nueva Galicia.^[19]
• 1565 – tributar en especie “to pay tribute in kind” in Mexico.^[19]
• 1843 – the Academy defines the class sense, the mental image, “case, matter” and the fencing thrust.^[15]
• 1869 – the musical and sacramental senses are added.^[16]
• 1899 – the biological sense enters the Academy's dictionary.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind, sort or type: a set of things alike in one or more characteristics.^[4] Una especie de means “a sort of”: Oímos una especie de silbido.^[4][1][22]
2. A person or thing very like another of a different kind.^[4]
3. (philosophy) The image or idea of an object represented in the mind.^[4][22]
4. A case, matter or affair.^[4]
5. A piece of news, a rumour or proposition: Se extendió por el pueblo la especie de que iban a cerrar la fábrica.^[4][22]
6. An appearance, pretext or cover.^[4]
7. (biology) A species: the group below the genus whose members share characters that set them apart from other species.^[4][1]
8. (fencing) A cut or thrust.^[4]
9. (music) Each of the voices of a composition, consonant or dissonant.^[4]
10. (chemistry) A set of atomic or molecular entities with similar properties and structure.^[4]
11. (Honduras, Dominican Republic, masculine) Malicious gossip.^[21]

Word family

• subespecie

Related words

• especia
• especial
• especioso
• especificar
• aspecto
• Latin species
• Portuguese espécie

Usage notes

En especie means “in kind”, in goods rather than money: pagar en especie.^[22][18] The especies sacramentales are the smell, colour and taste that remain in the Eucharist after transubstantiation.^[4] The doublet especia keeps the sense “spice”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 738
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. especie
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. especie
5. ^ 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. especie
6. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. especie
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. species
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8131
9. ^ 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, 631
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. espèce
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. speciēs
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 350
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. especie
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 318
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 332
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 423
18. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 710
19. ^ a b c 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. especie
20. ^ 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. 289
21. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. especie
22. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. especie