mismo

Forms

mismo (feminine misma, masculine plural mismos, feminine plural mismas, superlative mismísimo)^[1] Old Spanish more often had meísmo (first in 1154) and meesmo or mesmo;^[2][3] mismo itself is in the Cid.^[2][3] Berceo has misme;^[4][5] mesmo lived on in Old Aragonese, in Murcia and in popular speech, and Asturian has mesmu.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish mesmo, inherited from Vulgar Latin *metipsimus.^[2][6][1] The Vulgar Latin form, also given as *medipsimus, joins the emphatic particle -met, which Latin added to personal pronouns (egomet (“I myself”), tumet (“you yourself”)), and the emphatic superlative ipsimus of ipse (“himself, the very one”); in speech the particle had a variant -med.^[2][7] Bénaben describes the steps: the emphasis of the doubled pronoun “I myself in person” wore off, the superlative was added, the pronoun was dropped, and the resulting long form was shortened by haplology.^[8] The French tradition puts the joining of the two elements into metipse in the 5th century.^[9]

The same Latin form is Portuguese mesmo, Galician mesmo, Asturian mesmu, French même (earlier Old French medisme and medesme, about 1050) and Italian medesimo.^[10][1][9] The Latin pronoun alone gave the demonstrative ese.^[11][7]

De Vaan explains the Latin pronoun as is with an element ⟨-pse⟩, probably from a particle ⟨-pe⟩ and the Proto-Indo-European pronoun *só.^[12] Latin also had the superlative ipsissimus (“the very same”) from Plautus on.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has mismo as a pronoun of identity, and a document of 1154 has the more usual old form meísmo.^[2][3] The prose of Alfonso X already shows all three main uses: faz esso mismo “it does the same”, por esta misma razon “for this same reason”, and por si misma “by itself”, in the emphatic use after a pronoun.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Mesmo and mismo long lived side by side: Nebrija in 1495 still wrote esso mesmo and alli mesmo, and a Mexican document of 1527 has yo mesmo and yo mismo in one passage.^[14][15] Moliner lists mesmo and meísmo as old forms.^[16]

From Autoridades on, the Academy defined the same three senses: identity (“not another”), likeness (“the same colour”) and emphasis after a personal pronoun (yo mismo).^[17][18] Autoridades derived the word from Italian medesimo, and the Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 from a Latin enclitic metipsum.^[17][19][20] In 1869 the Academy added the use after adverbs (hoy mismo, aquí mismo), noting that it then never takes a feminine ending.^[21]

In Colombia mismo after a noun means “complete, utter”, as in un burro mismo “a perfect fool”.^[22] In several American countries ahí mismo means “at that very moment”.^[23] Philippine Spanish passed the word into Tagalog and Chavacano as mismo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – mismo in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3]
• 1154 – first record of the old form meísmo.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses mismo for identity, likeness and emphasis.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario still writes mesmo.^[14]
• 1527 – yo mesmo and yo mismo side by side in a document from Mexico City.^[15]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses mismo as “the same”.^[24]
• 1734 – Autoridades derives the word from Italian medesimo.^[17]
• 1869 – the Academy records the use after adverbs, as in hoy mismo.^[21]

Meanings

Adjective

1. same, identical: the very one and not another: Vive en la misma casa que su abuelo.^[6][1]
2. Exactly alike: Tienen el mismo carácter.^[6][1]
3. (emphatic) Before or after a noun, and after a personal pronoun: self, very: Ella misma lo arregló., en la plaza misma.^[6][1]
4. After a noun or pronoun, marking an indifferent choice among several: Pásame ese mismo.^[6]
5. (Colombia) After a noun: complete, utter.^[22]

Adverb

1. (emphatic) After some adverbs and phrases: right, exactly: Mañana mismo te llamo.^[6][1]
2. After an adverb or a phrase of place, marking an indifferent choice: Déjalo aquí mismo.^[6]

Word family

• mismísimo
• asimismo
• mismamente

Related words

• ese
• Latin ipse
• Portuguese mesmo
• French même

Usage notes

With the neuter article, lo mismo means “the same thing”.^[25] Así mismo is also written as one word, asimismo “likewise”.^[6] The superlative mismísimo strengthens the emphasis.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mismo
3. ^ a b c d Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. mismo
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. metipsimus
5. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. mesmu
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. mismo
7. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. mismo
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. mismo
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2205
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ipse
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. mismo
14. ^ a b 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. mismo
15. ^ 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. mesme
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. meísmo
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 578
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 577
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 708
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 664
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 513
22. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 562
23. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mismo
24. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 173
25. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mismo