honestidad

Forms

honestidad f (plural honestidades)^[1] Old Spanish had onestad and onestat (Berceo, Alfonso X), beside honestidat from the end of the 13th century;^[2][3] Nebrija still gives both onestad and onestidad.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is first recorded as inherited from Old Spanish onestad, borrowed from Latin honestās (“honour, respectability”), a learned word like honesto.^[4][1] The ending was later remade on the pattern of words in ⟨-idad⟩.^[1] The DLE derives the modern form from Vulgar Latin honestitas, and Wiktionary notes that the Latin noun may itself be a shortened *honestitās.^[5][1] Corominas dates the form in ⟨-idad⟩ to the Corbacho (1438) and Alfonso de Palencia, with honestad as the older form in Berceo and a Murcian document of about 1400.^[4] The CDH has honestidat already in the Castigos of 1293.^[2]

The Latin noun is formed from honestus (“honoured, honourable”), which Corominas derives from the same base as honōs (“honour”).^[6][4] The same Latin word is Portuguese honestidade, Catalan honestedat, Italian onestà and French honnêteté.^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy) speaks of moving the bodies of saints to tombs de mejor onestad, “of greater dignity”.^[2] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen Mary is flor de grant onestat, where the sense is purity.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's legal prose defines honestad as the fulfilment of good manners suited to one's station, which suits clerics above all.^[9] From the 14th century the -idad form spreads, in the Libro del cavallero Cifar and the Crónica de 1344.^[2]

Autoridades (1734) defines the word as composure and moderation in person, deeds and words, and also as chastity, the opposite of lust;^[10][11] Cervantes uses it in this sense of women's modesty.^[10][11] The Academy's 1884 edition gives three senses: composure, modesty, and decorum or courtesy.^[12] Today the DLE defines it only as the quality of being honesto, and the common modern sense is truthfulness and integrity.^[5][13][1]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo uses onestad.^[2]
• 1293 – the Castigos (BNM ms. 6559) has the form honestidat.^[2]
• 1438 – the Corbacho, Corominas's first record of honestidad.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives onestad o onestidad for Latin honestas.^[3]
• 1576 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[14]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines it as composure and as chastity.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from honesto and adds the sense “decorum”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. honesty, integrity: the quality of being honesto: Nadie dudó de la honestidad de la jueza.^[5][1]
2. (dated) Modesty, decency and restraint in person, deeds and words; chastity.^[10][12]

Related words

• honesto
• deshonestidad
• honor
• Latin honestās

Usage notes

In canon law, pública honestidad is an impediment to marriage arising from an invalid marriage or open concubinage, treated like affinity.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. honestidad
3. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 383
5. ^ a b c d 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. honestidad
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. honestidade
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. honestedat
9. ^ 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. honestidad
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 172
11. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 574
13. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies