impuesto

Forms

impuesto m (plural impuestos)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle from Spanish imponer (“to impose”), used as a noun meaning “what is imposed”.^[2][1][3] The Academy compares Latin impostus, a participle, a variant of impositus, from impōnō (“to place upon, impose”).^[4][5] This short form occurs in Lucretius and Virgil.^[6] Gómez de Silva links the noun to Medieval Latin impositum (“tax, levy”), the neuter of the participle.^[7] French impôt has the same source: it was adapted in 1399 from that Latin neuter.^[8] Wiktionary compares it and the English word impost as parallel formations.^[1]

The Spanish verb was taken from the Latin one; in Old Spanish it appears as emponer (“to advise, instruct”) in Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre, and in its modern form in Nebrija.^[9] The Latin verb is formed from in- (“in, on”) and pōnō (“to place, put”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *pozinō.^[10][1] The diphthong of the Spanish participle is that of puesto, the participle of poner, the inherited verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas notes that the noun is missing from Nebrija, Palencia, Cristóbal de las Casas and Covarrubias, and dates it to the Academy's dictionary of 1780.^[9] Autoridades already has it in 1734: “the tribute is also so called, the participle of imponer being applied especially in this sense and made a noun”.^[3] The participle itself is much older: the feminine inpuesta is found in a document of Alto Aragón of 1349.^[11] The first sense of the noun was a tribute or levy.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's editions of 1843 and later define the noun as “tribute, charge”, beside the participle of imponer.^[12][13] In the Americas the noun is recorded from Bogotá in 1776, and in Buenos Aires in 1791.^[14] The modern definition is legal and economic: a tribute exacted according to the economic capacity of those obliged to pay it, with set phrases such as impuesto directo.^[4][5] Many Latin American countries call the value-added tax impuesto al valor agregado.^[15]

As an adjective the participle follows other senses of imponer: Moliner records impuesto de “informed, instructed in”, and in Mexico, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Cuba impuesto means “accustomed”; in New Mexico mal impuesto means “spoilt”.^[16][15][17]

Timeline

• 1349 – the participle inpuesta in a document of Alto Aragón.^[11]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the noun “tribute”.^[3]
• 1776 – the first record of the noun from the Americas, in Bogotá.^[14]
• 1780 – the noun in the Academy's dictionary, Corominas's date.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin impositus.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. tax, levy: a tribute (tributo) exacted according to the economic capacity of those who must pay it: Este año subirá el impuesto sobre la gasolina.^[4][16][1]
2. (economics) impuesto directo: a tax levied on the sources of economic capacity, such as income and property.^[4]
3. (Latin America) impuesto al valor agregado: value-added tax.^[15]

Adjective

1. (Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Dominican Republic) Accustomed (acostumbrado), used to something.^[4][15]
2. Informed or instructed in something: Ya está impuesto de sus tareas.^[16]

Related words

• imponer
• imposición
• impositivo
• impostor
• puesto
• French impôt

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. impuesto
3. ^ 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, 228
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. impuesto
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. impuesto
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. impuesto
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 607
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. impuesto
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 402
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 427
14. ^ 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. impuesto
15. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. impuesto
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. impuesto
17. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 105
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 588