legación

Forms

legación f (plural legaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lēgātiō (“the sending of envoys, embassy”).^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is formed from lēgō (“to send with a commission”) with the suffix -tiō.^[4][1] Corominas lists it, without a date, among the words of the family of legar, a legal term taken from the same Latin verb.^[5] DICCA-XV also treats it as belonging to that verb, which it traces to lex (“law”).^[6] The same Latin word is Portuguese legação, French légation and Italian legazione.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records in the CDH are in the Aragonese translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396), where the word means an embassy and the message it carries: Las paraulas de tu legacion nos las auemos huydo diligentment “we have listened carefully to the words of your embassy” (Historia troyana).^[8] In his translations of Orosius and Eutropius it is the envoys sent to other cities: la legacion de los cartagineses vino en Roma “the embassy of the Carthaginians came to Rome”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glossed Latin legatio with embaxada rather than with this word.^[6] In 1625 a text from Lima uses it of a mission entrusted to someone, and in 1859 texts from Santo Domingo speak of the legation of a country at a foreign court, the diplomatic sense.^[9] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 defined it as legacía, as the post a government gives someone to represent it before a foreign government, and as the persons who make up a legation; in 1899 it added the legate's staff and his house or office, the senses the DLE keeps.^[10][11][2] Moliner also gives the territory under a legate's jurisdiction, the length of his office and a group that represents a state at a meeting or congress.^[12]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – first records, in the translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia.^[8]
• 1385 – Heredia's Gran crónica de España uses legaçion for an embassy.^[8]
• 1492 – Nebrija renders Latin legatio as embaxada.^[6]
• 1625 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[9]
• 1859 – the diplomatic legation of a state, in Santo Domingo.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the diplomatic sense.^[10]
• 1899 – it adds the legate's staff and his house or office.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office of a legate (legado); legacía.^[2][12]
2. The post a government gives someone to represent it before a foreign government, as ambassador (embajador), plenipotentiary or chargé d'affaires.^[2]
3. The staff under a legate and the other members of his official retinue.^[2][13]
4. The house or office of a legate; a legation: La legación cerró sus puertas tras el golpe de Estado.^[2][13]

Related words

• legado
• legar
• legacía
• delegación

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. legación
3. ^ 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. 366
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lēgātiō
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 639
6. ^ a b c 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. legación
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. legação
8. ^ 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. legación
9. ^ 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. legación
10. ^ 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. 635
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 593
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. legación
13. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. legación