identidad

Forms

identidad f (plural identidades)^[1] 15th-century texts also have ydentidat and ydemptidat;^[2][3] idemptidad is still found in a Mexican document of 1712.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin identitas (“sameness”).^[4][5][6] The Late Latin word was an artificial formation on idem (“the same”), made on the model of ens (“being”) and entitas (“entity”) to translate Ancient Greek ταυτότης (tautótēs, “sameness”).^[4][5][7]

The same Latin word is French identité, Italian identità, Portuguese identidade and Catalan identitat.^[8][1] Nascentes takes the Portuguese word from scholastic Latin by a semi-learned route.^[9]

The Latin pronoun is a combination of is (“he, that”) with an enclitic particle -dem, which was cut out of the neuter form of the pronoun.^[10] Wiktionary traces the second part to *izdim.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable (c. 1440), where Wisdom gives examples that are not ydentidat, strict sameness, but are close to true likeness.^[4][2] The other 15th-century records are theological: Alonso de Madrigal and the 1494 translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, which speaks of the persons of the Trinity as united segund la identidad de su essençia “according to the identity of their essence”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a term of philosophy and theology into the 16th century.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the reason why things that seem distinct are in fact one, and records the scholastic identidad de razón.^[11] The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century add identidad de persona, the legal fiction by which an heir is treated as the same person as the testator.^[12][13]

In 1899 the Academy added the sense “being the same person or thing that is supposed or sought” and the mathematical identity.^[14] The senses “the set of features that set a person or group apart” and “awareness of being oneself” are in the 2001 edition.^[15] The identity papers of modern life, the carné de identidad and the documento nacional de identidad, belong to the sense “proof of being who one says”.^[16] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1712, in a Mexican lawsuit.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable has ydentidat.^[4][2]
• 1494 – identidad in the translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, the first record without a later copy.^[2]
• 1712 – first record from the Americas, in Nueva Vizcaya (Mexico).^[3]
• 1734 – idéntico is first recorded, in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[4][5]
• 1817 – the Academy records identidad de persona as a legal term.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Low Latin identitas.^[17]
• 1899 – the senses “being the one sought” and the mathematical identity are added.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being identical; sameness.^[6][1]
2. The set of features that characterise a person or a group and set them apart from others: la identidad cultural de un pueblo.^[6][18]
3. A person's or group's awareness of being themselves and different from others.^[6]
4. The fact of being the person or thing that is supposed or sought: La policía aún no ha confirmado la identidad del detenido.^[6][16]
5. (mathematics) An identity: an equality that holds whatever the values of its variables.^[6]

Related words

• idéntico
• identificar
• ídem
• entidad
• Latin identitas

Usage notes

Set phrases include crisis de identidad “identity crisis” and identidad de género “gender identity”.^[18][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. identidad
3. ^ a b c d 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. identidad
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, 437
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. idem
6. ^ 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. identidad
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 366
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. identitat
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. identidade
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, s.v. identidad
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 482
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 424
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 544
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. identidad
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. identidad
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 583
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. identidad