experiencia

Forms

experiencia f (plural experiencias)^[1] Old and Golden Age Spanish wrote espiriencia, esperiencia and only sometimes experiencia; the spelling with ⟨x⟩ did not become general until Autoridades.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin experientia (“trial; experience”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed from experiēns, the present participle of experior (“to try, test”), with the suffix -ia.^[5][1][6] The verb is formed with ex-, and is related to perītus (“experienced”);^[6][7][8] Gómez de Silva derives its root from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try”).^[6][7][8]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Portuguese experiência, Catalan experiència, French expérience and Italian esperienza.^{[9][10][8][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the Cancionero de Baena (c. 1400), in the form espiriencia.^[2][3] The CDH has it a century earlier: the Castigos of Sancho IV, in a manuscript of 1293, say that Adam yielded to the woman, wanting auer esperiençia del dulçor del fruto “to have experience of the sweetness of the fruit”.^[11] The sense was knowledge gained by trying or living through something.^[11][4]

Semantic evolution

Early records include the phrase por esperiencia “from experience”.^[11] Corominas cites esperiencia in the Celestina and experientia in Alonso de Palencia;^[12] Nebrija hesitated between the two spellings.^[2] Autoridades defined it as knowledge acquired by use and practice and recorded the proverb la experiencia es madre de la ciencia.^[13] The Academy added the sense “experiment” by 1884.^[12] The DLE now also counts an event a person has lived through as una experiencia.^[4]

Timeline

• 1293 – the Castigos of Sancho IV have esperiençia.^[11]
• c. 1350 – the translation of Jacques de Vitry's Historia uses por esperiençia.^[11]
• 1376 – the date of first record in the DTME.^[14]
• c. 1400 – espiriencia in the Cancionero de Baena, the first record in Corominas.^[2][3]
• 1519 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[15]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records la experiencia es madre de la ciencia.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “experiment”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fact of having felt, known or witnessed something oneself: Lo sé por experiencia.^[4][1]
2. Long practice that gives knowledge or skill; expertise: Busca cocineros con experiencia.^[4][1]
3. Knowledge of life gained from what one has lived through.^[4]
4. An event or situation a person has lived through: Fue una experiencia inolvidable.^[4]
5. An experimento.^[4]

Word family

• experiencial
• inexperiencia

Related words

• experimento
• experimentar
• experto
• perito
• Latin experientia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 825
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. experiencia
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. experiencia
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. experientia
6. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 296
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. experiencia
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. expérience
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1500
10. ^ 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, 832
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. experiencia
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 479
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 687
14. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. experiencia
15. ^ 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. esperencia