inquisidor

Forms

inquisidor (feminine inquisidora, masculine plural inquisidores, feminine plural inquisidoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin inquīsītor (“searcher, investigator”).^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is an agent noun of inquīrō (“to search for, inquire”) with -tor, and the verb is formed in- and quaerō (“to seek, ask”).^[4][1][5] In Medieval Latin it named a magistrate in charge of religious policing from 1233.^[5]

Corominas treats it with inquirir in the article on querer, and says that the noun was already medieval, at least in Aragon.^[6] The same Latin word gave French inquisiteur (1294), Italian inquisitore and Catalan inquisidor; Basque inkisidore was taken from Spanish.^[5][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Segura Munguía dates the first record to 1444.^[3] In the Americas it appears in Lima in 1539, of someone who was to judge certain crimes como inquisydor “as inquisitor”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Castile the word came to mean above all the judge of the Holy Office: Terreros noted that, although it could mean anyone who inquires, Castilians commonly called only the judge of the Inquisition so.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the church judge for causes of faith and listed the inquisidor general, head of the Council of the Inquisition.^[10] It also recorded an Aragonese office: the judges named every two years by the king, his lieutenant or the deputies to inquire into the misconduct of the vice-chancellor and other magistrates.^[10][11] The Academy wrote in 1817 that the inquisitor conoce “hears” causes of faith, and in 1843 that he conocía “heard” them.^[12][13] The adjective “who inquires” is the first sense of the modern dictionary, and Moliner gives it as “inquisitive”, of looks and questions.^[2][14] In Andalusia it is said colloquially of someone who abuses their authority.^[15]

Timeline

• 1444 – first record, according to Segura Munguía.^[3]
• 1488 – first occurrence in the Old Spanish Textual Archive, in the Fables of Aesop printed at Toulouse.^[16]
• 1539 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[8]
• 1563 – the Inquisidor Mayor named in a document from Yucatán.^[8]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the church judge, the inquisidor general and the Aragonese office.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the inquisidor de Estado of Venice and the inquisidor apostólico.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin inquisitor, and the adjective sense “who inquires”.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Who inquires; inquisitive, probing; also used as a noun: Le dirigió una mirada inquisidora.^[2][14][1]

Noun

1. (history) A church judge who heard causes of faith; a judge of the Inquisición; an inquisitor.^[2][18][1]
2. (history, Aragon) Each of the judges named to inquire into the conduct of the vice-chancellor and other magistrates.^[17][14]
3. A person who investigates something to establish its facts.^[19]

Related words

• inquirir
• inquisición
• inquisitivo
• inquisitorial
• pesquisidor
• Latin inquīsītor

Usage notes

Historical titles include inquisidor general, the head of the Council of the Inquisition, and inquisidor de Estado, each of the three nobles of Venice's Council of Ten who judged crimes against the state.^[10][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. inquisidor
3. ^ a b c d 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. 640
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 717
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. inquisidor
8. ^ a b c 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. inquisidor
9. ^ 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, 353
10. ^ 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, 277
11. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 244
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 496
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 410
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. inquisidor
15. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 333
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 560
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. inquisidor
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. inquisidor