impostor

Forms

impostor m (plural impostores, feminine impostora, feminine plural impostoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impostor (“deceiver, charlatan”), first recorded at the beginning of the 17th century, at the same time as impostura.^[2][3][4][1] García de Diego takes it instead from Italian impostore.^[5]

The Latin noun is a late word, found in Ulpian and in the Christian writers.^[6][7] It is a shortened form of impositor, the agent noun of impōnō (“to place upon; to impose on, deceive”),^[1][6] a verb formed from in- and pōnō (“to put”).^[6] Corominas explains the noun by the sense “to deceive” of the verb, which earlier meant “to inflict (a penalty)”;^[3] Spanish imponer is the learned borrowing of the same verb, first recorded in 1220–1250.^[3] The English word impostor is a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to the early 17th century, after Autoridades,^[2][3] whose quotation, from Pellicer, uses it in the sense “one who falsely imputes something to another”: haciendo con ella los impostores algazaras “the impostors making a great clamour with it”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades gave two senses: one who falsely attributes something to another, and one who deceives with an appearance of truth.^[8] Terreros in 1787 glossed it as fraudulent, forger and deceiver, with French imposteur.^[9] The first record from the Americas, from Tucumán in 1790, already has the deceiver: Mesmer venía a ser un hábil impostor “Mesmer turned out to be a skilful impostor”.^[10] The 1884 edition of the Academy's dictionary treats it as an adjective also used as a noun.^[11] The 2001 edition and the current one add a third sense, someone who passes himself off as someone else.^[12][4] Moliner also gives the general sense “liar”.^[13]

Timeline

• early 17th century – first record, in a quotation in Autoridades.^[2][3]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as one who falsely imputes something to another, or who deceives with an appearance of truth.^[8]
• 1787 – Terreros gives the French equivalent imposteur.^[9]
• 1790 – first record from the Americas, in Tucumán.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin impostor.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Someone who falsely attributes something to another; a slanderer (calumniador); also used as an adjective.^[4][13]
2. Someone who deceives with an appearance of truth; a liar.^[4][13]
3. An impostor: someone who passes himself off as someone he is not (suplantador): Al final se supo que el falso conde era un impostor.^[4][1][13]

Related words

• impostura
• imponer
• poner
• Latin impostor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 607
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poner
4. ^ a b c d e 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. impostor
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. impostor
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 229
9. ^ a b 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, 330
10. ^ 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. impostor
11. ^ 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. 587
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. impostor
13. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. impostor