futuro

Forms

futuro (feminine futura, masculine plural futuros, feminine plural futuras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin futūrus (“that is to be, coming”), the future participle of sum (“to be”), a learned word.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Breve diccionario dates it 1438; the DCECH, which discusses it under ser, quotes Alfonso de Palencia (1490).^[2][3] The vocabulary of the 13th–15th centuries in the DEMel also lists it in Berceo's life of Saint Dominic of Silos.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese futuro, Catalan futur, French futur and Italian futuro.^[1] French borrowed it in 1219.^[7]

The stem of futūrus and of the perfect fuī goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, be”), the root of the English be and Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “to bring forth, grow”).^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's quotation is from Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario (1490).^[3] The earliest records from the Americas use it as an adjective and in the phrase lo futuro “the future”: de lo pasado se ha de congeturar o presumir a lo futuro “from the past one must conjecture or presume the future” (Tierra Firme, 1518).^[8]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1732) has the adjective “that is to come”, the noun futura, the right to succeed to a post or an income after another's death, and the grammatical tense.^[9] Futura is recorded in a law of 1630.^[3] Terreros already recorded futuro as a noun.^[10] The Academy's dictionary of 1869 added futuro and futura for a man or woman formally engaged to be married.^[11] The current dictionary also has the economic sense, goods or securities delivered after a set term at a price fixed in advance.^[4]

In the Americas a futuro means “later, afterwards”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1438 – first record, as the Breve diccionario dates it.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses it.^[3]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in the form foturo.^[8]
• 1630 – a law has the noun futura “right of succession to a post”.^[3]
• 1732 – Autoridades records the adjective, futura and the grammatical tense.^[9]
• 1869 – the Academy records futuro, futura “fiancé, fiancée”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, “Del lat. futurus”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. future: that is still to come and will happen in time.^[4][1]
2. That is not yet, but is going to be: la futura directora del museo.^[4]

Noun

1. The future, the time to come.^[4][1]
2. (economics, usually plural) futures: goods or securities to be delivered after a set term at a price fixed when the deal is made.^[4]
3. (grammar) The future tense.^[4][1]
4. (feminine) The right of succession to a post or benefice before it falls vacant.^[4][9]
5. (colloquial, masculine and feminine) A fiancé or fiancée: Nos presentó a su futuro.^[4]

Word family

• futurismo
• futurista
• futurología

Related words

• ser
• Latin futūrus
• French futur

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ser
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 213
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. futuro
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. futurus
6. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. futuro
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. futur
8. ^ 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, p. s.v. foturo
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 816
10. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 197
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 374
12. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. futuro
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 515