indigente

Forms

indigente m or f (masculine and feminine plural indigentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin indigēns (“needy”), the present participle of indigeō (“to need, lack”).^[2][3][4][1] The OLD, Wiktionary, Bénaben and Gómez de Silva analyse the verb as indu- (“in”) and egeō (“to need, want”), while Corominas explains it as the same verb with inde (“from there, of it”).^{[5][6][7][3][4]} De Vaan takes the simple verb back to Proto-Italic *egē- (“to lack”) and to *h₁eǵ-es- (“lack, need”).^[8]

The DCECH treats it under the old word egestad “poverty”, from Latin egestās, a derivative of the same verb.^[3] Related forms are French indigent, Catalan indigent and Italian indigente.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas has it first in Alfonso de la Torre, about 1440, after C. C. Smith, and next in Hernán Núñez in 1499; the BDELC gives only the date 1499.^[3][4] In the CDH an early hit is the translation of Francesc Eiximenis's Libro de las donas (before 1448), where charity is spent helping su prósimo indigente “his needy neighbour”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined it as needy, poor, with a quotation from the Comendador's commentary on Juan de Mena, and the Academy's 1817 edition as one who lacks what is necessary.^[11][12] From 1843 on the definition is the one still used, lacking the means to live, and Domínguez in 1846 already treated it as noun and adjective; the Academy added the use as a noun in 1884.^[13][14][15] The noun indigencia is recorded by Corominas from about 1440 in the BDELC, but only from Autoridades in the DCECH.^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – Alfonso de la Torre, the first record according to Corominas.^[3]
• before 1448 – the Castilian translation of Eiximenis's Libro de las donas.^[10]
• 1499 – Hernán Núñez.^[3][4]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as needy, poor.^[11]
• 1788 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the use as a noun.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. indigent, destitute: lacking the means to live, suffering indigencia: una familia indigente.^[2][17][1]

Noun

1. A pauper, a destitute person: El albergue da cama a los indigentes en invierno.^[2][1]

Word family

• indigencia

Related words

• egestad
• Latin indigēns

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. indigente
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 547
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. indigente
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. indigeō
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. indigente
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. indigente
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 811
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. indigente
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 252
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 490
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 405
14. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 992
15. ^ 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. 593
16. ^ 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. indigente
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. indigente