esposo

Forms

esposo m (plural esposos, feminine esposa, feminine plural esposas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spōnsus (“betrothed; bridegroom”), the past participle of spondeō (“to promise solemnly”); the feminine esposa is sponsa.^[2][3][4][1] Lanchetas compares espeso, from expensum, for the loss of the /n/.^[5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese esposo, Galician esposo, Asturian esposu, Catalan espòs, Occitan espós, French époux and Italian sposo.^{[6][7][8][9][1]} Corominas notes that the word was never truly popular: its Castilian sound shape shows nothing unusual, unlike that of the French word, and he does not count it learned or semi-learned, but in all these languages it belongs to the words whose form was influenced by Church Latin.^[2]

The Latin verb meant “to pledge, promise, make a contract”; de Vaan traces it to a Proto-Italic verb meaning “to pour a libation”.^[10] Wiktionary derives it from a causative of Proto-Indo-European *spend- (“to perform a rite, make an offering”), the root also of Ancient Greek σπένδω (spéndō, “to pour a libation”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has only the feminine esposa, for the Cid's daughters between their betrothal and their wedding.^[2][3] In Berceo's Loores esposo already has the sense “husband”; there it stands figuratively for Christ, the bridegroom who comes out of his chamber in the Psalm.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

“Husband” was the usual sense through the Middle Ages and was probably the popular one from the 13th century, while the etymological “betrothed” survived in a more elevated style.^[2] Alfonso X's General Estoria uses it for the men betrothed to Lot's daughters, and his Estoria de España for a son-in-law of the emperor Claudius.^[11] Nebrija still translated it with Latin sponsus.^[12][2] Autoridades (1732) defined it as a man and woman who have given each other their word of marriage, while admitting that usage applied it to married people.^[13] The Academy kept “betrothed” first until the 2001 edition put “married person” first; the DLE now marks “betrothed” as obsolete.^[14][15][4] Today it belongs to the formal vocabulary in Spain, and in the Americas it is more ordinary.^[2]

In religious language Christ is the Esposo of the Church, and esposa de Cristo is the Church.^[16][17] Comparing handcuffs to wives is an old metaphor: esposas “handcuffs” is recorded from 1335, by allusion to their being inseparable.^[3][2] In much of the Americas esposa has also come to mean the bishop's ring.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the feminine esposa in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3]
• 13th century – Berceo uses esposo for “husband”.^[2]
• 1241 – Leonese esposayas “betrothal”, from sponsālia, in the Fuero Juzgo.^[2]
• 1255 – the first text with the word in the HSMS archive.^[18]
• 1335 – esposas “handcuffs”.^[3]
• 1495 – desposar and desposorio.^[3]
• 1529 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1604 – the verb esposar.^[3]
• c. 1620 – esponsales “betrothal”, from Latin sponsalis.^[3]
• 1732 – Autoridades says the true sense is “betrothed”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from sponsus and spondere.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. husband; in the feminine esposa, wife: a married person in relation to his or her spouse: Vino a la cena con su esposa.^[4][1][17]
2. (obsolete) A person who has entered into a betrothal; a fiancé.^[4]
3. (feminine, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru) The episcopal ring.^[4]
4. (feminine plural, esposas) handcuffs.^[4]

Word family

• esposar

Related words

• esponsales
• desposar
• Latin spōnsus
• Portuguese esposo
• English spouse

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 j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 752
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esposo
4. ^ 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. esposo
5. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 346
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sponsus
7. ^ 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, 667
8. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. esposu
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 729
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. ^ 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. esposo
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 350
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 613
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 390
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. esposo
16. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 104
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esposo
18. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. esposo
19. ^ 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. esposo
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 462