experimentación

Forms

experimentación f (plural experimentaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish experimentar + -ción.^[2][3] Corominas lists it, undated, among the learned derivatives of experiencia.^[3] Garzón in 1910 took it from French expérimentation, and the 19th-century purists treated it as a Gallicism.^[4][5]

experimentar is first recorded about 1440, and experimento about 1280, from Latin experimentum (“trial, proof by experience”).^[6][3] The Latin family goes back to experior (“to try, test”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is Juan de Ortega's book of arithmetic and geometry of 1512, where the spelling is esperimentación and the sense “a test, a practical proof”: to those who doubt a rule he offers a trial with a die made of wood.^[7] The CDH has no further record among its earliest hits until about 1861, in a mathematical work of José María Rey y Heredia.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word came into general use in the second half of the 19th century as a term of science, in works of popular science, anatomy, geology and medicine.^[7] Baralt rejected it in 1855 as an unnecessary Gallicism, since Spanish had experimento and experiencia;^[5][8][9] Batres in Guatemala and Román in Chile objected to it in the same way.^[5][8][9] Segovia in 1911 and Medina in 1927 recorded it as the act of experimenting, Medina also as the scientific method.^[10][11] Alemany in 1917 defined it simply as an experiment.^[2] The DLE gives the act of experimenting and the scientific method of research based on producing and studying phenomena.^[12]

Timeline

• 1512 – Juan de Ortega writes esperimentación for a practical test.^[7]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns it as a Gallicism.^[5]
• c. 1861–1865 – José María Rey y Heredia uses it in a work on imaginary numbers.^[7]
• 1872 – Juan Vilanova y Piera uses it in his compendium of geology.^[7]
• 1917 – Alemany's dictionary records it.^[2]
• 1978 – a record from Caracas, the first from the Americas in Boyd-Bowman.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of experimenting (experimentar); experimentation: El nuevo fármaco sigue en fase de experimentación.^[12][1][14]
2. The scientific method of research based on producing phenomena and studying them.^[12][14][15]

Related words

• experimentar
• experimento
• experimental
• experiencia

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 746
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 825
4. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 205
5. ^ a b c d Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 295
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. experiencia
7. ^ 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. experimentación
8. ^ a b Batres Jáuregui, Antonio (1892), Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, Guatemala: Encuadernación y Tipografía Nacional, p. 284
9. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 339
10. ^ Segovia, Lisandro (1911), Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos, Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, p. 394
11. ^ Medina, José Toribio (1927), Chilenismos: apuntes lexicográficos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Universo, p. 38
12. ^ 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. experimentación
13. ^ 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. experimentación
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. experimentación
15. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. experimentación