humano

Forms

humano (feminine humana, masculine plural humanos, feminine plural humanas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hūmānus (“of a human being, human”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that, although it is frequent at every period and found in all the Romance languages, it usually appears in learned contexts, and that medieval texts more often have humanal, which fell out of use after the 15th century.^[2]

The Latin adjective is related to homō (“human being”), but not derived from it directly; how both relate to humus (“earth”) is, for Corominas, one of the obscure questions of Indo-European linguistics.^[2][3] Wiktionary calls the formation uncertain: it may be built with the suffix -ānus on a form of the word for “earth”, through a vowel change that de Vaan doubts.^[1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the noun, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰ(e)m-ōn (“earthling, human”).^[5] Old Latin also had a form with ⟨e⟩, recorded by Festus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Auto de los Reyes Magos, of about 1200 (the DEMel dates it about 1180), where it is used of coming “in human flesh”, en carne humana.^[2][7] Berceo, Juan Ruiz and Nebrija have it too.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as what belongs to man, with linaje humano for all the descendants of Adam, and also as gentle, compassionate and kind; he contrasts it with divino and records Dios humanado, “God made man”.^[8] Autoridades has the same two senses, and adds that astrologers called Gemini, Virgo, Aquarius and half of Sagittarius the human signs.^[9]

As a noun, “a man, a human being”, Salvá in 1846 and the Academy in 1869 marked it as old, though Salvá noted that poets still used it much; the Academy dropped the label in 1884.^[10][11][12] The DLE now uses the masculine plural los humanos for humankind.^[4] Moliner adds the sense “excusable as a human weakness” (es humano que…).^[13]

Of the derivatives, humanista (1613, Cervantes) is probably from Italian, humanitario (1855) from French and censured by Baralt, and humanismo a word coined in German in 1808.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos has carne humana.^[2][7]
• 1220–1250 – first record of humanidad.^[3]
• 1256 – the earliest dated text with the word in the HSMS archive of Old Spanish texts.^[14]
• c. 1440 – first record of inhumano.^[3]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, in Panama, contrasting the divine and the human.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the senses “of man” and “compassionate, kind”.^[8]
• 1613 – humanista in Cervantes.^[2]
• 1855 – humanitario, disapproved by Baralt.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin and the noun without the label “old”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. human: having the nature of a human being; of or relating to humans: el cuerpo humano.^[4][1]
2. Characteristic of human beings, especially of their imperfection: Es humano tener miedo.^[4][13]
3. humane: understanding and sensitive to the misfortunes of others: Fue muy humano con los presos.^[4][1][13]

Noun

1. A human being, a person; often in the masculine plural for humankind: Los humanos llegaron tarde a esa isla.^[4][1]

Word family

• humanidad
• humanal
• humanar
• humanizar
• humanista
• inhumano
• sobrehumano

Related words

• hombre
• humanitario
• Latin hūmānus
• Latin homō

Usage notes

Set phrases include ser humano “human being”, género humano “humankind” and respetos humanos “fear of what people will say”.^[13][4]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 425
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. humano
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. humano
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. homō
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. hūmānus
7. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. humano
8. ^ 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. 1002
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 189
10. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 598
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 422
12. ^ 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. 580
13. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. humano
14. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. humano
15. ^ 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. humano