honor

Forms

honor m (plural honores)^[1] Old Spanish onor, also honore in the Glosas Emilianenses and onnor.^[2][3] The word was always feminine in the 11th–13th centuries (la onor); the masculine became general later.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin honor (“honour, esteem”);^[1] Old Spanish had onor.^[2][4][5][1] Latin also had the older form honōs, which Cicero still preferred.^[6][1] Its origin is unknown: de Vaan notes that the Latin root ⟨hon-⟩ can hardly continue anything but *ǵʰon- or a form with a plain velar, but no cognates are known.^[7][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese honor, Catalan honor, Old Occitan onor, French honneur, Italian onore and Basque ohore.^[8][9][2] Coromines regards the Catalan word as received by a semi-learned route.^[10] In Spanish the more popular word in every period was the derivative honra, from the verb honrar, which continues honorare.^[2] Corominas notes that the regular outcome of that verb would have been ornar, found a few times in Berceo; the influence of the noun restored onrar, later ondrar or onrrar.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Emilianenses, of about 950, record the word as honore.^[2][4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) it has a feudal sense: when the Cid goes into exile, unos dexan casas e otros onores “some leave their houses and others their estates”.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word had the feudal senses “estate, patrimony” and “the right to the revenues of a royal town or castle”, as well as “lot, portion” and “high rank” in Berceo.^[2] The same feudal meaning “fief” is found in Carolingian Latin, Old French and Old Occitan.^[8][12] The current dictionary still lists both senses, as obsolete feminine uses.^[5] In Aragon an honor was a town that the king granted to a lord, who held jurisdiction over it.^[13] Alfonso X used the word for glory and good reputation, and for a dignity or office, and had the phrase a onor de “in honour of”.^[14]

Juan de Valdés allowed honor only in verse, keeping honra for prose.^[2] Covarrubias simply equated it with honra and recorded dueñas de honor, noble widows who lived at the royal palaces.^[15] Autoridades defined it as honour shown with splendour and publicity, and as the reputation of a family or deed.^[16] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added a woman's modesty and good name and, mostly in the plural, a dignity or office (los honores de la república).^[17] In 1843 it added the plural honores for an honorary title held without the office.^[18] In 1884 it defined the first sense as the moral quality that leads one to fulfil one's duties to others and oneself.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses have honore.^[2][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses onores for feudal estates.^[11][2]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix has a onor de “in honour of”.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Onor o onra with Latin honor, honos.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records dueñas de honor.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the sense “a woman's modesty and good name”.^[17]
• 1843 – the plural honores for an honorary title.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the modern moral definition.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. honour: the moral quality that leads a person to fulfil their duties towards others and themselves: Es una persona de honor..^[5][21]
2. Glory or good reputation earned by virtue, merit or heroic deeds, which extends to one's family.^[5]
3. (dated) In the past or in some societies, the chastity and modesty of women.^[5]
4. Homage, tribute or praise paid to someone: una cena en honor del director.^[5]
5. Something that makes a person feel exalted: Es un honor trabajar con usted.^[5][21]
6. (mostly in the plural) A dignity, office or post: aspirar a los honores de la magistratura.^[5]
7. (in the plural) The title and privileges of an office granted to someone who does not hold it.^[5][18]
8. (in the plural) The ceremonial with which someone is received because of their office: Le rindieron honores militares.^[5]
9. (obsolete, feminine) An estate, a patrimony; the use of the revenues of a royal town or castle granted to a knight.^[5][2]

Word family

• deshonor

Related words

• honra
• honrar
• honesto
• honorable
• honorario
• Latin honor

Usage notes

Set phrases include hacer honor a “to live up to” and con honores de “with the standing of”, said of something that comes close to a grander thing.^[5] Spanish keeps both honor and the more popular honra; the Academy's first definition of honor (1726) was “honra shown with splendour and publicity”.^[2][16]

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 i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 383
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. honor
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. honor
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. honor
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4171
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3281
10. ^ 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. 4, 806
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. honor
12. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
13. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 244
14. ^ 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. honor
15. ^ 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. 990
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 172
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 475
18. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 392
19. ^ a b 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
20. ^ 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, p. s.v. honor
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. honor