mente

Forms

mente f (plural mentes)^[1] The inherited Old Spanish form was miente, recorded from about 950 and used until the Golden Age.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mēns (“mind”), a learned word that took the place of the inherited miente.^[2][4][1] Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned borrowing of the Latin accusative.^[1] The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *mn̥ti-, from *mn-ti- (“thought, mind”), a noun of the root of meminī (“I remember”) and moneō (“to remind, warn”).^[5] Wiktionary names Old English ġemynd, the source of mind, among its cognates.^[1]

The Latin word is Italian mente, Catalan ment, Portuguese mente and Romanian minte.^[6][7] The inherited form shows the diphthong /je/ from stressed Latin /e/, which the learned word lacks.^[2][8] Latin already used the ablative of the noun after an adjective, in phrases meaning “with a quick mind” and the like, and this became the Romance adverb ending -mente.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The inherited miente is in the Cantar de mio Cid, where the Cid's men are parando mientes “paying heed” to their lord.^[10] The learned mente appears in Berceo's hymns, of 1236–1246 in an 18th-century copy, in the Veni Creator: visita nuestras mentes de la tu sancta lumne “visit our minds with your holy light”.^[11][12] The BDELC dates mente to 1444.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word lived mainly in phrases: meter mientes and parar mientes “to take heed”, de buena miente or de buena ment “willingly”.^[13][10] The same was true of Portuguese, where it occurred mainly in verbal phrases such as meter mentes “to observe”.^[14] Miente stayed in use until the Golden Age, and survives in parar mientes and venir a las mientes.^[2][8]

Covarrubias in 1611 treats mente only as the ending of adverbs such as buenamente.^[15] Autoridades defines it as the understanding, and also as the sense or intention of a text, as la mente de la ley; it notes that the adverbs once ended in -miente and -mientre.^[16] In 1817 the Academy added the sense “will, disposition” and marked de buena mente “willingly” as old.^[17] The DLE now also gives the sense used in psychology, the set of conscious and unconscious mental processes.^[4] In New Mexican Spanish hacer la mente “to make up one's mind” follows English.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the inherited form miente is first recorded.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) has parando mientes.^[10]
• 1236–1246 – Berceo's hymns have the learned plural mentes.^[11]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España has de buena ment “willingly”.^[13]
• 1444 – the BDELC's date for mente.^[2]
• 1490 – the adjective mental is first recorded.^[2]
• 1591 – Percyvall: “Mente, a minde”.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records only the adverb ending -mente.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades: the understanding;^[16] la mente de la ley.^[16]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “will, disposition” and de buena mente.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mind, the intellect: the faculty with which one thinks: Tiene una mente muy despierta para los números.^[4][20][1]
2. Thought, design, intention, will: No estaba en mi mente molestarte.^[4][20]
3. An attitude or way of thinking: una mente muy cerrada.^[20][21]
4. (psychology) The set of conscious and unconscious mental activities and processes, especially cognitive ones.^[4]

Word family

• mental
• mentar
• mentalidad
• mentecato

Related words

• miente
• Latin mens

Usage notes

Tener algo en la mente or tener algo en mente means to have it in mind or planned.^[4][20] Mente is also the second element of adverbs (claramente), written as one word with the feminine adjective: see -mente.^[16][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mente
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. 418
4. ^ 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. mente
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. mēns
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. mens
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4268
8. ^ a b c d Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. mente
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 582
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. miente
11. ^ 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. mente
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mente
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. mente
14. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2197
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1130
16. ^ 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, 545
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 567
18. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 130
19. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 171
20. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mente
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. mente