impresión

Forms

impresión f (plural impresiones)^[1] Old and Golden Age Spanish wrote impressión, inpressión and impression.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impressiō (“a pressing; an onset; an impression”), a learned word.^[4][1][5][6] The Latin noun is formed from imprimō (“to press into, stamp”) with -tiō.^[7][1] The verb is formed from in- and premō (“to press”).^[1][8]

imprimir and impreso are learned words of the same Latin family, while imprenta came from Catalan empremta.^[5][6] The simple verb probably goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pr-es- (“to press”), a form of Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to push, beat, press”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in Pedro de Cuéllar's Catecismo of 1325, but in a copy of 1472: the inpressión of the cross on the forehead.^[2] The first hit in a contemporary manuscript is Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Orosius (1376–1396), where impresion has the Latin military sense “onslaught”: the soldiers return to the battle and make a great apretamiento et impresion.^[2][9] In the Rimado de Palacio of Pero López de Ayala it means “pressure, coercion”, beside fuerça.^[2][10] Corominas dates the word from Juan de Mena's Laberinto of 1444.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was a term of philosophy, medicine and astronomy: in 1410 a treatise on the plague speaks of impressiones de fuego and comets, and a 1494 medical translation follows Aristotle in saying that a bare thing takes no impression.^[2] A privilege of Juan II in 1411 uses inpresiones for threats and pressure brought on a university.^[2] With the printing press the word took on the sense “printing”: Nebrija (c. 1495) has emprenta o impression and impression of books, and a Mexican document of 1547 speaks of el arte de la ynpresión.^[3][11]

The Academy's 1817 edition lists the act of printing, a mark left by pressure, the type of a book, the printed work itself, the effect of one body on another, and, figuratively, the movement that things cause in the mind.^[12] Alemany added in 1917 the sense of a quick view or study of something, which leads to the modern “opinion, feeling”, as in tengo la impresión de que….^[13][4] The derivative impresionar is recorded in the first half of the 17th century, and impresionismo took its name from the French painters' impression.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1325 – inpressión of the cross, in Pedro de Cuéllar's Catecismo, in a copy of 1472.^[2]
• 1376–1396 – impresion “onslaught” in Fernández de Heredia's Orosius.^[2]
• c. 1385 – Pero López de Ayala's Rimado de Palacio.^[10]
• 1444 – Juan de Mena's Laberinto, the DCECH's first record.^[6][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives impression of books, Latin impressio.^[3]
• 1547 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, for the art of printing.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy records the senses of printing, mark, printed work and effect on the mind.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin impressio.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or effect of printing: La impresión del folleto costó poco.^[4][1]
2. A mark left by one thing pressed on another, such as an animal's track or the stamp of a seal on paper.^[4]
3. The effect or feeling that something or someone causes in the mind; a shock: Me dio mucha impresión verlo tan delgado.^[4][1]
4. The quality or style of type in which a work is printed.^[4]
5. A printed work.^[4]
6. The effect or change that a foreign body causes in another.^[4]
7. An opinion or feeling that something arouses, often without clear reason: Tengo la impresión de que llegará tarde.^[4][16]
8. (biology) Imprinting.^[4]
9. (obsolete) A printing works.^[4]

Word family

• impresionar
• impresionismo
• impresionista
• sobreimpresión

Related words

• imprenta
• impreso
• imprimir
• impronta
• presión
• Latin impressiō

Usage notes

Impresión dactilar or impresión digital is a fingerprint, and cambiar impresiones means to exchange views.^[4][17] De impresión is colloquial for “impressive”.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. impresión
3. ^ a b c 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. impresión
4. ^ 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. impresión
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. imprimir
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 827
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. impressiō
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 376
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. impresión
11. ^ 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. impresión
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 486
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 933
14. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 361
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 548
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. impresión
17. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 607