incendio

Forms

incendio m (plural incendios)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin incendium (“fire, conflagration”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is formed from incendō (“to set on fire”) with the suffix -ium, and the verb from in- and candeō (“to shine, glow”).^[4][1][5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kandē- (“to shine”), and Wiktionary connects it with Proto-Indo-European *(s)kend- (“to shine, glow”).^[6][1]

The Latin verb itself lives on in Spanish as encender, under which Corominas lists the noun.^[2] The same learned noun is Portuguese incêndio, Catalan incendi, French incendie and Italian incendio.^[7][8][9][1] French took it about 1600, while Old Occitan already had encendi in the 11th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word 1438.^[2] The CDH has an earlier record in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), which punishes whoever has a man killed o algun incendio o quema fazer “or causes some fire or burning”, that is, arson.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined it as a great fire that burns houses or cities, and added two figurative uses: anything that causes great heat, such as the summer sun, and passions such as love or anger.^[12] Terreros also applied it to people and wars that cause great harm, with Helena fue el incendio de Troya, and noted that a forest fire was locally called quema.^[13] The Academy's 1884 dictionary gave the fire that burns buildings and crops and the figurative passion, the two senses the DLE keeps.^[14][3] In Chile hablar incendios means to speak ill of someone, a use Román and Medina criticised.^[15][16][17]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – first record in the CDH, in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[10]
• 1376 – the earliest dated text in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[18]
• 1438 – Corominas's date of first record.^[2]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Asunción, where the townspeople are ordered to make ladders to put out fires.^[19]
• 1618 – first record of the derivative incendiario.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the literal, the “heat” and the “passion” senses.^[12]
• 1765–1783 – first record of the verb incendiar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large destructive fire that burns what should not burn, such as buildings or forests; a blaze: El incendio arrasó cien hectáreas de pinar.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) A vehement passion, such as love or anger.^[3][12]

Word family

• antiincendios
• incendiar
• incendiario

Related words

• encendedor
• encender
• incienso
• Latin incendium
• French incendie

Usage notes

Common phrases are incendio forestal “forest fire”, boca de incendio “fire hydrant” and escalera de incendios “fire escape”.^[1][3]

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 Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. encender
3. ^ 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. incendio
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. incendio
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. incêndio
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. incendi
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. incendio
11. ^ 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. incendio
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 237
13. ^ 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, 333
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 589
15. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 21
16. ^ Medina, José Toribio (1927), Chilenismos: apuntes lexicográficos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Universo, p. 45
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. incendio
18. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. incendio
19. ^ 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. incendio