inteligente

Forms

inteligente m or f (masculine and feminine plural inteligentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin intelligēns (“understanding; expert”), a variant of intellegēns.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is the present participle of intellegō (“to understand”); the spelling with ⟨e⟩ is the more classical, but the one with ⟨i⟩ prevailed in Late Latin.^[2][1] The verb is formed from inter- (“between”) and legō (“to gather, choose; to read”), properly “to choose between”.^[5][6] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect”), the root of Ancient Greek λέγω (légō, “to gather, count; to speak”).^[7]

The same Latin word gave the English word intelligent, Italian intelligente and Catalan intel·ligent.^[1][8][9] French intelligent is recorded from 1488.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the Quijote (1605).^[2][3] The CDH has it nearly two centuries earlier, in Moses Arragel's translation of the Bible (1422–1433): coraçon sabio e inteligente darte “to give you a wise and understanding heart”.^[10] Alfonso de la Torre (c. 1430–1440) and El Tostado (1437) use it in philosophical prose, as in El Tostado's substançia intelligente “intelligent substance”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare and learned for a long time.^[2] It is missing from Alfonso de Palencia, Nebrija, Cristóbal de las Casas, Percyvall and Covarrubias.^[2] Las Casas renders Italian intelligente as entendido.^[2] Oudin records it, but Cervantes uses it only as a synonym of entendido “expert”, as in inteligente en las materias de estado, and not in the absolute sense “endowed with intelligence”.^[2][11] The earliest records from the Americas, from Lima in 1607, have the same sense “knowledgeable”.^[12]

Autoridades gives both senses, “one who understands” and “learned, expert”.^[11] The Academy put “learned, expert” first until the end of the 19th century, and only later gave first place to “endowed with intelligence”.^[13][14][4] Corominas notes that in his day the word was common among educated people but little used by others, who preferred listo.^[2]

The technical sense, of a building, system or device that is controlled by computer and adjusts itself, was in the Academy's dictionary by 2001.^[15] The Tesoro of Puerto Rico treats it as a semantic loan from the English word intelligent.^[16]

Timeline

• 1422–1433 – coraçon sabio e inteligente in Moses Arragel's Bible translation.^[10]
• 1437 – substançia intelligente in El Tostado's Libro de las paradojas.^[10]
• 1605 – the Quijote uses it in the sense “expert”, the first record according to Corominas.^[2][3]
• 1607 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines “one who understands” and “learned, expert”.^[11]
• 1846 – Domínguez records animales inteligentes in zoology.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[18]
• 2001 – the Academy adds the sense of a computer-controlled system.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Endowed with inteligencia, able to understand: ¿Hay seres inteligentes fuera de la Tierra?^[4][19][1]
2. Of a person: intelligent, clever, of more than usual intelligence; also used as a noun.^[4][1]
3. Showing intelligence: una pregunta inteligente.^[4][19]
4. Learned, expert, skilled in a field; also used as a noun.^[4][20]
5. (technology) smart: of a building, system or device controlled by computer that responds to changes around it without human action: teléfono inteligente, ciudad inteligente.^[4][1]

Word family

• inteligentemente
• teléfono inteligente

Related words

• inteligencia
• inteligible
• intelecto
• entender
• Latin intellegō
• English intelligent

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 459
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. inteligente
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. inteligente
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. inteligente
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 387
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 864
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. inteligente
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. inteligente
12. ^ 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. inteligente
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 498
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 562
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. inteligente
16. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. inteligente
17. ^ 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. 1006
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. 603
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. inteligente
20. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 958