estado

Forms

estado m (plural estados)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write stado.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin status (“way of standing; position, condition”), through Old Spanish estado.^[3][1][4][5] Corominas treats it in the article on estar, whose past participle has the same form: the verb is stō (“to stand”), and the Latin noun is the verbal noun of the same root.^[6][7][8] The sense “measure of length” comes from the height of a grown man.^[1][9]

The same word is Portuguese estado, Galician estado, Catalan estat, French état, Italian stato and Romanian stat.^[4][1][10] The English word state has the same Latin source, and estatus is a learned doublet of the Spanish word.^[1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *statu- (“setting up”) and Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), the root of the verb.^[11][1] Bénaben notes that in Latin it was often used of the city and the commonwealth, so that it could mean the constitution of the state, the source of the political sense.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

La fazienda de Ultra Mar, of about 1200 and known from a 13th-century manuscript, has el estado del omne “the state of man” in God's words before the Flood.^[13] Corominas's first record is Berceo, and Berceo already uses the word for a way of life, the monk's life chosen by Saint Dominic of Silos: fo bien si acordasse la fin a est estado “it was well if the end agreed with this state”.^[6][13][14] The Fuero de Zorita, of the first half of the 13th century, uses the plural for the measure: every town fountain is to have tres estados of space around it.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already had the senses “condition”, “stature”, “rank”, “estate, property” and the measure of six or seven feet.^[15][14] Alfonso X used it for the condition of a thing, for a class in society, for the measure, and in astronomy for the position of a planet in its sign.^[9] Nebrija gives it for a person's height and for the state of a lawsuit.^[6][16]

Covarrubias in 1611 describes the estates of the commonwealth, clergy and laity, knights, townsmen and labourers, and a second sense, the government of the king and his kingdom, as in materia de estado and Consejo de Estado.^[17] Terreros, at the end of the 18th century, gives “empire, kingdom or territory under one rule” and the policy by which it is governed.^[18] In 1817 the Academy defines it as the political body of a nation and the dominion of a prince or lord.^[19] Alemany in 1917 adds each territory of a federal republic, a sense the DAMER labels for the United States, Mexico and Venezuela.^[20][21] The DLE today lists the condition of a person or thing, the estates of the old society, civil status, the sovereign country, the state as political organisation and as the body of government, the federal unit, a summary account, the old measures, and a fencing posture.^[3] Physics and chemistry use it for the states of matter.^[22][23]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – el estado del omne in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[13]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the plural estados for the measure in the Fuero de Zorita.^[13]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses it for the monastic way of life.^[13][14]
• 1277 – Alfonso X's astronomical works use estados to measure shadows.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives estado for a person's height, Latin statura.^[24]
• 1532 – the measure in Mexico, for flood water half a man deep.^[25]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records materia de estado and Consejo de Estado.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as the political body of a nation.^[19]
• 1917 – Alemany adds the federal sense.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. state, condition: the situation in which a person or thing is, especially each of the successive ways it can be: El coche llegó en muy mal estado.^[3][1]
2. (historical) Each of the estates (estamentos) into which society was divided, such as the clergy, the nobility and the commons.^[3][22]
3. The class or condition of a person's life; marital status (estado civil).^[3]
4. A sovereign country recognised as such internationally, with its own territory and government.^[3][1]
5. The state as a form of political organisation, and the body of powers and organs of government of a country; often written Estado.^[3][5][1]
6. In a federation (federación), each of its self-governing territories: el estado de Jalisco.^[3][21][1]
7. A summary account by general headings drawn from detailed reports.^[3][22]
8. (historical) A measure of length, the height of a man, about seven feet; also a square measure of 49 square feet.^[3][1]
9. (physics, chemistry) Each of the forms in which matter occurs, such as solid, liquid or gas.^[22][23]
10. (fencing) The posture of the body after a thrust, parry or deflection of the opponent's sword.^[3]

Word family

• estadal
• estadidad
• estadista
• estadounidense
• estadístico

Related words

• estar
• estatus
• estatura
• Latin status

Usage notes

In the political senses the word is often written with a capital, el Estado.^[5][1] Set phrases include golpe de estado, estado civil and en estado “pregnant”.^[1] In Puerto Rico the sense “state of the United States” is noted as an adaptation of English state.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. estado
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6326
5. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 776
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estar
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
9. ^ a b c 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. estado
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
13. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estado
14. ^ a b c Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra
15. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C.
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
17. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 801
18. ^ 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
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
20. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena
21. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
22. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
23. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es
24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 351
25. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
26. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr