fe

Forms

fe f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fidēs (“faith, trust; credit; a promise, pledged word”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin accusative fidem gave first fee and then fe, as pedem gave pie and videt gave ve.^[2][1] The older form is still found now and then in the Middle Ages and even in the 16th century: three times in a document of 1206, in the Conde Lucanor, in the Cancionero de Baena and in Saint John of the Cross.^[2]

Corominas holds that the kept /f/ is not a sign of learned origin: here, as in falta and falso, the pronunciation of the educated prevailed over the popular one, which alone at first had the aspirated /h/.^[2] The popular form with /h/ did exist: the rustic speech of Golden Age plays has the oaths ⟨a la he⟩ and ⟨mia he⟩, and the first already occurs in Juan Ruiz.^[2] Corominas derives Basque alafede (“by my faith”) from an archaic Castilian a la fede.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese fé, Asturian fe, Catalan fe, Occitan fe, French foi and Italian fede.^[5][6][7][8]

The Latin noun belongs to the family of fīdō (“to trust”), with fidēlis (“faithful”) and perfidia (“faithlessness”).^[9] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeydʰ- (“to command, persuade, trust”), the root also of Proto-Germanic *bīdaną;^[1] the OLD compares Ancient Greek πείθω (peíthō, “to persuade”) and πίστις (pístis, “faith”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the earliest texts of the language, the Cantar de mio Cid among them.^[2][3] In the Cid, known from a 14th-century copy, it means a pledge of loyalty or a solemn promise: „con grand jura meted ý las fes amos que non las catedes en todo aqueste año” “with a great oath pledge your faith, both of you, that you will not look into them all this year”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for trust, for religious belief and for a promise of loyalty, and in oaths and assurances such as a la fe and a buena fe “truly, certainly”.^[13] Alfonso X's prose has belief without proof, trust in a person and a solemnly pledged word.^[14]

In 1611 Covarrubias listed a promise, fidelity, credence, conscience (estar en buena fe or en mala fe), the authentic testimony that a notary gives, the certificate fe de vida that someone is alive, and finally the theological virtue.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades put the theological virtue first, and the Academy kept that order through its 2001 edition; the DLE now begins with the body of beliefs of a religion.^{[16][17][18][4]} The sense “fidelity”, as in conjugal fidelity, appears in the Academy's dictionary of 1869.^[19] Phrases include buena fe “uprightness, good faith”, also a legal standard of honest conduct, and the printer's fe de erratas, a list of errata.^[4][20]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the plural fes for pledges of loyalty.^[11][12]
• 1206 – the older form fee occurs three times in a document.^[2]
• 1256 – the Picatrix speaks of a man de poca fe, of little belief.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin fides and religio for fe o creencia.^[21]
• 1514 – first record in the Americas, in Darién, for a notary's attestation.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists the senses from “promise” to the theological virtue.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it first as the theological virtue.^[16]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary includes the sense “fidelity”.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Latin fides.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. The body of beliefs of a religion: Se convirtió a la fe de sus abuelos.^[4][24]
2. The set of beliefs of a person, a group or a crowd.^[4]
3. trust, confidence in someone or something: No tengo fe en ese tratamiento.^[4][1]
4. Belief given to something on the authority of whoever says it or by public report.^[4]
5. A pledged word, a solemn or public promise.^[4][15]
6. Assurance that something is true;^[16] dar fe is to attest, as a notary does.^[4]
7. A document certifying that something is true, such as a fe de bautismo.^[4]
8. fidelity, loyalty.^[4]
9. (religion) In Christianity, the theological virtue of assent to God's revelation as the Church proposes it.^[4][16]

Word family

• fementido
• fehaciente
• fedatario

Related words

• fiel
• fidelidad
• infiel
• pérfido
• fidedigno
• fideicomiso
• Latin fidēs
• Portuguese fé

Usage notes

De buena fe and de mala fe mean “in good faith” and “in bad faith”.^[4][7] The DLE lists a second fe, without an etymology: an obsolete adverb meaning “behold”, the same as he (he aquí).^[4][18][25] In Alfonso X's Lapidario fe is also the name of the Arabic letter for /f/.^[14][26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 877
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fe
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. fe
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fides
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1536
7. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. fe
8. ^ 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, 918
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fides
11. ^ 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. fe
12. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 278
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 253
14. ^ 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. fe
15. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 835
16. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 729
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 412
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. fe
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 356
20. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 991
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 353
22. ^ 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. fe
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 455
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. fe
25. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 249
26. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. fe