fiel

Forms

fiel m or f (masculine and feminine plural fieles, superlative fidelísimo)^[1] An older form fidel is found in early charters and in Berceo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fiel, inherited from Latin fidēlis (“faithful”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas explains the kept ⟨f⟩ as in fe: the word was pronounced without a diphthong until late, so neither the diphthong nor a wish to avoid a clash with hiel “gall”, as Steiger thought, is the reason.^[2] The Latin adjective is formed from fidēs (“faith, trust”) with the suffix -ēlis.^[1][5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese fiel, Galician fiel, Asturian fiel, Italian fedele and Occitan fidèl.^[1][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in the Cid's greeting: ¡Venides, Martín Antolínez, el mio fiel vassallo! “You have come, Martín Antolínez, my faithful vassal!”.^[8][2] The first record in a contemporary manuscript is a will of the 13th century, which pays for masses for los fieles de Dios “God's faithful”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the word for loyal people and, as a noun, for Christians who live by the precepts of the Church; one passage applies it to those who follow the law of the Old Testament.^[9] The old noun for faithfulness was fieldad, in a charter of 1206 and still in Nebrija; fidelidad, from Latin, appears in 1490.^[2] Nebrija in 1495 glosses fiel both as a person one trusts and as one who believes in the faith.^[10]

Covarrubias defines the word as one who keeps faith and loyalty, and Autoridades adds a thing that works as it should, such as a clock that keeps time, and a Catholic Christian, por antonomasia.^[11][12][13] Today it also means “exact, true to the facts”, as of a copy or a memory, and a believer of any religion.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[8][3]
• 1206 – the noun fieldad “fidelity” in a charter.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas says farm workers are thieves and not fieles under a bad sign.^[9]
• 1490 – the learned fidelidad.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's two glosses.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it and also names the pointer of a balance fiel.^[11]
• 1732 – Autoridades records fiel for a Catholic Christian.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. faithful, loyal: true to one's word, affections and duties, not betraying the trust placed in one.^[4][1]
2. Exact, true to the facts: una traducción fiel del original.^[4]
3. Having the qualities its use requires; reliable.^[4]
4. (also as a noun) A Christian who keeps the rules of the Church; a believer of a religion: los fieles llenaban la iglesia.^[4][1]

Word family

• fielmente

Related words

• fe
• fiar
• fidelidad
• infiel
• Latin fidēlis
• Portuguese fiel

Usage notes

A separate word fiel, the pointer of a balance, comes from the obsolete fil “pointer of a balance”, from Late Latin filum “thread”, the name Isidore used for it; in the phrase fil de la balanza it was confused with fiel “faithful”, and both fil and fiel are first found in Alonso de Palencia in 1490.^[14][15][4] By the same image the word named officials who checked weights and measures (1495) and the fiel ejecutor (1499).^[15] In Old Spanish and in Asturian fiel is also the gall, hiel.^[16][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 877
3. ^ a b c 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 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. fiel
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1555
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. fiel
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. fiel
9. ^ a b 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. fiel
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 353
11. ^ 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. 843
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 745
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. fiel
14. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 888
15. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fiel
16. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 252