héroe

Forms

héroe m (plural héroes, feminine heroína, feminine plural heroínas)^[1] Alfonso de Palencia also has the plural heroas, and Oudin gives the form heros.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hērōs (“demigod, hero”), from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “demigod; epic war leader”).^[2][3][4][1] The feminine heroína is from ἡρωΐνη (hērōḯnē).^[4]

Beekes rejects the old reconstruction with a lost /w/ because of the Mycenaean form, and considers the word probably Pre-Greek.^[5][1] Gómez de Silva still mentions a possible link with Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to protect”).^[6]

The Spanish stress on the first syllable is against both the Latin and the Italian eroe, Portuguese herói and Catalan forms.^[2] In 1617 Cascales called this stress a barbarous pronunciation, and Autoridades still wrote the accent on the second syllable; but according to Cuervo, Herrera, Balbuena and Góngora stressed the first syllable, as Lope clearly does.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario (1490) defines heroes partly as a Latin word: “sons of the earth” and “strong men”, whose deeds are sung in heroic metre.^[2][3] The Comendador Griego in 1499 still explains it: Heroes se llaman los excelentes e claros varones “heroes is the name for excellent and famous men”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas concludes that the word was hardly used in the 15th century;^[2] Gonzalo Pérez used it in his translation of the Odyssey (1553), and it became frequent only from the end of the 16th century, in Herrera, Góngora, Balbuena and Lope.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 still lacks it, and the adjective heroico spread earlier than the noun.^[2]

Terreros defined the hero of antiquity as a mortal whom the peoples placed among the gods after death, and noted that the word was by then used more generally for an illustrious man of extraordinary merit.^[7] The Academy in 1817 gave the demigod, the illustrious man and the main character of a poem.^[8] By 1899 it added the person who performs a heroic act.^[9] The DLE now puts the selfless act first and gives the masculine and the feminine heroína together.^[4]

Timeline

• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia records heroes and heroas.^[2][3]
• 1499 – the Comendador Griego explains it as “excellent and famous men”.^[2]
• 1553 – Gonzalo Pérez uses it in his translation of the Odyssey.^[2]
• 1617 – Cascales calls the stress héroe barbarous.^[2]
• early 17th century – heroína is first recorded, in Lope.^[2][3]
• 1723 – first record from the Americas, in Venezuela.^[10]
• 1765–1783 – Terreros records heroísmo.^[3][2]
• 1817 – the Academy defines the demigod, the illustrious man and the main character of a poem.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who does a brave and selfless deed for a noble cause; a hero or heroine.^[4][1]
2. A person famous for their great deeds or virtues.^[4]
3. In a poem or story, a leading character who acts bravely and boldly.^[4]
4. The protagonist of a work of fiction.^[4][11]
5. A person whom someone particularly admires.^[4]
6. (mythology) A man born of a god or goddess and a human being, more than a man and less than a god, such as Hercules or Achilles; a demigod.^[4][11]

Word family

• heroico
• heroína
• heroísmo
• antihéroe
• heroicidad

Related words

• Latin hērōs
• Italian eroe
• Portuguese herói

Usage notes

In colloquial speech the word is often pronounced as two syllables, /ˈeɾwe/.^[1]

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 h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 349
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. héroe
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. héroe
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ἥρως
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 349
7. ^ 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, 278
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 466
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 523
10. ^ 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. héroe
11. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. héroe