espurio

Forms

espurio (feminine espuria, masculine plural espurios, feminine plural espurias)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin spurius (“bastard, illegitimate”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Romanian spuriu continues the same Latin word.^[5]

The Latin word was a legal term for a child of unknown father, and also a personal name.^[6][7] The Oxford Latin Dictionary considers it probably Etruscan, and Gómez de Silva compares the Etruscan family name of similar form and Latin spurcus (“dirty, impure”).^[6][7] Wiktionary gives as alternatives the Etruscan word for “public” and a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to scatter”).^[1] The Roman jurist Gaius had explained it from Greek σποράδην (sporádēn, “scattered”) or as “sons without a father”, and Covarrubias repeated the Greek etymology.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (c. 1256–1265), which explain that a son called espurio may not inherit with the legitimate one, and define him as the child of a woman who gives herself to many.^{[2][3][9][10]}

Semantic evolution

For centuries the word was a legal term for a child of uncertain father: Covarrubias in 1611 and Autoridades in 1732 define it so, and Autoridades adds that the Romans wrote it in abbreviation as S. P., read sine patre.^[8][10] Autoridades also gives a figurative sense, “adulterated, corrupt, false”, quoting Sigüenza on letters falsely attributed to Saint Jerome, and the astronomers' sombra espuria for the penumbra of a lunar eclipse.^[10] From 1843 the Academy defined the first sense simply as “bastard”.^[11] Today the figurative sense prevails: Moliner applies it to anything lacking legitimacy or authenticity, and Vox gives only “false, illegitimate”.^[12][13] In the Americas hijos espurios are recorded from 1570 in Nueva Galicia.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1256–1265 – Alfonso X's Siete Partidas.^[2][3][9]
• 1570 – first record in the Americas, in Nueva Galicia.^[14]
• 1604 – the form espúreo in a printing of Lope de Vega's comedies.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains hijo espurio and its Greek etymology.^[8]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the figurative sense “false”.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology from Latin.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bastard (bastardo), illegitimate: hijo espurio.^[4][12]
2. spurious, false; not genuine or authentic: Detectaron varios datos espurios en el informe.^{[4][13][12][1]}

Related words

• Latin spurius
• Latin spurcus

Usage notes

The form espúreo, a hypercorrection, is widespread and appears as early as a 1604 printing of Lope's comedies;^[2][3] Corominas suspects that many of its instances are printers' errors.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 754
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espurio
4. ^ 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. espurio
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8195
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. spurius
7. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. espurio
8. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 798
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. espurio
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 615
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 321
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espurio
13. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. espurio
14. ^ 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. espúreo
15. ^ 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