estúpido

Forms

estúpido (feminine estúpida, masculine plural estúpidos, feminine plural estúpidas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stupidus (“stunned, dazed; dull, foolish”), first recorded in 1691.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed from stupeō (“to be numb, to be stunned”) with the suffix -idus.^[4][1] De Vaan derives the verb from Proto-Indo-European *stup- (“to hit, push”), with the Latin sense “to be stunned” from “to be struck”, and compares Ancient Greek τύπτω (túptō, “to strike”).^[5]

The learned words estupor (1515), estupendo (c. 1570) and estupefacto (1843) come from the same Latin verb.^[2][6] The same Latin word was borrowed as French stupide, Italian stupido and the English word stupid.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1691.^[2][7] In 1732 the Diccionario de Autoridades called it a Latin word of little use, meaning “brutish, senseless and dull”, and quoted the phrase los más viles y estúpidos jumentos “the vilest and most stupid beasts of burden”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Terreros glossed it as “foolish, insensible, senseless”.^[9] The Academy defined it from 1817 as “notably slow to understand things”.^[10] Moliner adds its use as an insult for someone who annoys through tactlessness, and a sense “conceited, vain”.^[11] The DLE keeps a sense close to the Latin, “astonished, stupefied”.^[3] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1750, in Nueva Galicia.^[12]

Timeline

• 1691 – first record of estúpido.^[2]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a Latin word of little use.^[8]
• 1750 – first record in the Americas, in Nueva Galicia.^[12]
• 1765–1783 – first record of the noun estupidez.^[2]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as notably slow to understand.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin stupidus.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. stupid, foolish, lacking intelligence, also as a noun: No seas estúpido y escucha.^[3][1][11]
2. Of a thing, typical of a stupid person: Fue una pregunta estúpida.^[3]
3. (dated) Astonished, stunned (estupefacto).^[3]
4. (insult) Of a person who annoys through tactlessness.^[11]

Word family

• estupidez

Related words

• estupor
• estupendo
• estupefacto
• Latin stupidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estúpido
3. ^ a b c d e 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. estúpido
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. stupidus
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. stupeō
6. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. estúpido
7. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 737
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 660
9. ^ 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, 124
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 399
11. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estúpido
12. ^ 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. estúpido
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 438