existente

Forms

existente m or f (masculine and feminine plural existentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exsistēns (“existing”), the present participle of exsistō (“to come out, appear”), as the Academy's dictionary has given it since 1884.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary analyses it as the Spanish verb with the suffix -ente.^[1] Corominas lists it under existir, which he dates only from 1607, so the participle is recorded about a century and a half before the verb.^[5][6]

The Latin verb is formed of ex- (“out”) and sistō (“to set, place; to stand”).^[5][6] The same Latin participle is Catalan existent, French existant and Italian esistente.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In charters written in Latin the participle appears from 1202, as in the formula Ordonius Martini existente merino regis “Ordonius Martini being the king's merino” of the Oña documents.^[7] As a Spanish word Corominas first records it in Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable of about 1440, and then in Lope de Vega and Paravicino at the beginning of the 17th century.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) treated it as the active participle of existir, “what actually exists and is real”, with quotations from Paravicino and Lope.^[8] The Academy kept that definition through the 19th century and labelled it a participle until the 20th; the current dictionary treats it as an adjective, “existing at a given moment”.^[9][10][11] In the Americas it is recorded from 1697 in Mexico City, often of goods and documents that are still at hand.^[12]

Timeline

• 1202 – the participle in a charter in Latin, the Judicium regis Alfonsi.^[7]
• c. 1440 – Alfonso de la Torre, Visión deleitable: the first Spanish record Corominas gives.^[5]
• 1486 – the printed Visión deleitable of Burgos.^[13]
• 1607 – the verb existir first recorded, in Oudin.^[5]
• 1697 – Mexico City: tan existente y firme.^[12]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy gives its etymon, Latin existens.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. existing, existent at the time in question: las normas existentes.^[11][1][14]
2. real, not imaginary.^[14]

Word family

• inexistente

Related words

• existir
• existencia
• Latin exsistō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
4. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 824
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. existir
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. existente
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. existente
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
11. ^ a b 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. existente
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
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos