esperanza

Forms

esperanza f (plural esperanzas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote esperança, also sperança (in the Libro de buen amor) and esperançia (in the Fuero de Coria, early 13th century).^[2][3] A by-form with as- was widespread in the old and classical language beside the verb asperar, which survives in popular speech in Aragon, Andalusia, Asturias, the Caribbean, Mexico and Judeo-Spanish.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish esperança, which continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *spērantia, a noun formed on Latin spērāns (“hoping”), the present participle of spērō (“to hope”).^[1][5][3][6] The DLE and Corominas treat it as a derivative of esperar, and the noun can also be analysed as that verb with the suffix -anza.^[7][8][1] Corominas notes that this form is common to all the Romance languages and that everywhere it drove out the classical noun spēs (“hope”).^[4][6]

The same word is Portuguese esperança, Catalan esperança, French espérance and Italian speranza.^[1][4] For the French noun Wiktionary allows either a formation in French or a continuation of the Vulgar Latin noun.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed on the noun for “hope” with a verbal suffix.^[9][1] De Vaan reconstructs that noun as Proto-Italic *spēs and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *spéh₁s (“prosperity”), a noun of the root *speh₁- (“to succeed, prosper”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), at verse 490: the Cid tells Álvar Fáñez do yo vos enbiás, bien abría tal esperança, “where I sent you, I might well have had such a hope”.^[11][5][8] The sense is already “hope, expectation of something good”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for hope and for trust or confidence.^[3] In the prose of Alfonso X it is the confidence that something wished for will happen, and the hope a sinner should have in God's mercy.^[12][11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades separated divine hope, one of the three theological virtues, from human hope, a passion of the soul directed at an absent good.^[13] The Academy kept the virtue as the first sense until the 1899 edition put the everyday sense, confidence of attaining something, first.^[14][15][16] The current dictionary also has a mathematical sense, the expected value of a random variable, and the phrase esperanza de vida “life expectancy”.^[7]

In Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico esperanza is a large green grasshopper.^[17] Nascentes explains the same name for the insect in Portuguese by its green colour.^[6] Across much of Spanish America the exclamation ¡qué esperanza! says that something will certainly not happen.^[18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) has esperança.^[11][8]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) uses it for the hope of Israel.^[11]
• early 13th century – the Fuero de Coria has the form esperançia.^[2]
• c. 1230–1260 – the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient, the first record without a later copy.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin spes as its equivalent.^[20]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[21]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines divine and human hope;^[13] Corominas dates the verb esperanzar and the adjective esperanzado to 1732.^[13][8]
• early 19th century – desesperanzar is first recorded.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives the noun from esperar.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. hope: the state of mind in which something one wants seems attainable: Todavía tengo la esperanza de verla.^[7][1]
2. A person or thing in which someone puts their hope: Ese médico es nuestra última esperanza.^[22][23]
3. (mathematics) The expected value of a random variable or a probability distribution.^[7]
4. (Christianity) The theological virtue by which one trusts that God will grant what he has promised.^[7]
5. (Central America, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) A large green grasshopper.^[17]

Word family

• esperanzar
• esperanzado
• desesperanza

Related words

• esperar
• desesperar
• Latin spēs
• Portuguese esperança

Usage notes

Set phrases include esperanza de vida “life expectancy”, alimentarse de esperanzas “to live on hopes”, en estado de buena esperanza “pregnant” and the proverb la esperanza es lo último que se pierde.^[7][1][23] Esperanza is also a female given name.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. esperanza
3. ^ a b c d Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 238
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 740
5. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 261
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esperança
7. ^ 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. esperanza
8. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esperar
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. esperanza
12. ^ 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. esperanza
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 599
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 387
15. ^ 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. 459
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 424
17. ^ 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. esperanza
18. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 402
19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 623
20. ^ 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. esperanza
21. ^ 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. esperanza
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esperanza
23. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. esperanza