impersonal

Forms

impersonal m or f (masculine and feminine plural impersonales)^[1] The earliest record is spelt inpersonal.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impersōnālis (“impersonal”), a term of Latin grammar.^[3][1][4] Autoridades in 1734 already called the word “taken from the Latin”.^[4] The Latin adjective is used of verbs by the grammarians Charisius and Diomedes, and the adverb impersōnāliter (“without naming the person”) occurs in the Digest.^[5] It is formed from in- (“not”) and persōnālis (“personal”), from persōna (“mask; person”), a word of unknown origin.^[1]

The same Latin word is Catalan impersonal, Portuguese impessoal (1536), French impersonnel and Italian impersonale.^[6][7][8] The French word is recorded as a grammatical term from about 1174, and Nascentes takes the Portuguese one, with ⟨ss⟩ for Latin ⟨rs⟩, as semi-learned.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Spanish translation of Isidore's Etymologies, of after 1450 and in a copy of the second half of the 15th century: Inpersonal, que es 'sin persona', es así dicho porque ha menos de persona de nomen o de pronomen “Impersonal, which is ‘without person’, is so called because it lacks the person of a noun or pronoun”.^[2] The sense was grammatical: a verb without persons.^[2]

Semantic evolution

For three centuries the word was a grammatical term: Alfonso de Palencia (1490) and Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella (1499) label Latin verbs such as conducit and accidit “verbo impersonal”, and Nebrija in his Gramática of 1492 notes that Latin has an impersonal voice beside active and passive, while Castilian has only the active.^[2] Autoridades in 1734 defined it as what lacks persons, said of verbs and sentences, and added a second sense: the tratamiento impersonal, a way of addressing someone, usually by a superior, that gives none of the usual titles such as merced or señoría.^[4] Terreros thought this manner of speaking impolite.^[10] The Academy's 1843 edition limited the grammatical sense to verbs used only in the third person singular and recorded the adverbial phrase en or por impersonal.^[11]

Echegaray and Barcia give a philosophical sense, “belonging not to a particular person but to universal entities”.^[12][13] The modern dictionaries put first the general senses, “lacking personality or originality” and “not applying to anyone in particular”, beside the grammatical one.^[3][14] The first record from the Americas is from Mexico City in 1571, verbo impersonal o sin personas.^[15]

Timeline

• after 1450 – the Spanish Etymologies of Isidore defines the grammatical term.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario labels Latin conducit an impersonal verb.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Gramática castellana discusses the impersonal voice of Latin.^[2]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the grammatical sense and the tratamiento impersonal.^[4]
• 1843 – the Academy records the phrase en or por impersonal.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin impersonalis.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having or showing no personality (personalidad) or originality: Le pareció un piso frío e impersonal.^[3][14]
2. Not applying or referring to anyone in particular: una crítica impersonal.^[3][14][1]
3. (grammar) Of a sentence or verb: having no subject (sujeto), expressed or understood, as nieva or hace frío.^[3][1]
4. Of a form of address: avoiding tú and usted and speaking to the person in the third person.^[17][18]

Word family

• impersonalidad
• impersonalizar
• impersonalmente

Related words

• persona
• personal
• Latin impersōnālis

Usage notes

En impersonal or por impersonal means “impersonally”.^[3][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. impersonal
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. impersonal
4. ^ 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, 225
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. impersonal
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. impessoal
8. ^ a b Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. impessoal
10. ^ 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, 328
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 401
12. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 28
13. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 776
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. impersonal
15. ^ a b 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. impersonal
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 586
17. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. impersonal
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. impersonal