momento

Forms

momento m (plural momentos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mōmentum (“movement, impulse; short space of time”).^[2][1][3][4] Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century.^[3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of mover, with its first records in the Corbacho, in Alfonso de Palencia and in Nebrija.^[5] The CDH has it two centuries earlier, in translations of the mid-13th century.^[6][7]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Portuguese momento, Catalan moment, French moment and Italian momento.^{[8][9][10][1]} French had it by 1119.^[10]

The Latin noun is contracted from *movimentum, a noun in -mentum from moveō (“to move”).^[11][12][13] De Vaan gives its senses as “movement, power, short period, event”, and traces the verb to Proto-Italic *mow(a)- and Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”).^[14] The word first meant a movement or push, and concretely the small weight that is enough to tip a balance; from this came “a small part”, and in particular a small division of time.^[15][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is Herman el Alemán's Spanish version of the Psalter (1240–1272), which renders the verse on God's anger as car en momento fue la yra d'Él “for his anger was but for a moment”.^[6] About the same time the Fuero Juzgo (c. 1250–1260) quotes Christ's words to the Apostles, Non uos pertenece a uos de saber los tiempos nin los momentos “it is not for you to know the times or the moments”, and the Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) speaks of a child that lives por poco momento “for a short moment”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary of about 1495 already has two entries, momento de tiempo and momento de peso “moment of weight”, both rendered by Latin momentum.^[7] The sense “importance, weight” came with the Latin word: a letter from Chile of 1545 speaks of vassals who are not de tanto momento “of as much consequence” as the writer would wish.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the time sense, the importance sense with the phrase cosa de poco momento “a matter of little importance”, and a term of statics: the tendency of a heavy body to descend, which depends on its position as well as its weight, as on a steelyard.^[17][18]

The Academy redefined the mechanical sense in 1869 as the product of a force by its lever arm, and added momento de inercia in 1899.^[19][20] Medical and scientific Spanish also uses the word for momentum, the product of mass and velocity.^[21][1]

In 1855 Baralt condemned as Gallicisms the uses for “the present time” and “a favourable occasion”, preferring instante or al presente.^[22] The Academy now gives both, with “a period singled out by some circumstance”.^[2] In colloquial Latin American Spanish, and in the Dominican Republic, ¡momento! is an interjection asking someone to wait or to stop talking.^[2][23]

Timeline

• 1240–1272 – Herman el Alemán's Psalter, the earliest hit in the CDH.^[6]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor: por poco momento.^[6]
• 1438 – the Corbacho, the DCECH's first record.^[5][7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes momento de tiempo and momento de peso.^[7]
• 1545 – the first record from the Americas, in Chile, in the sense “importance”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the Latin momentum and the adjective momentáneo “what lasts very little”.^[24]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses of time, importance and statics, and the phrase al momento “at once”.^[17][18]
• 1855 – Baralt rejects el momento for “the present time” as a Gallicism.^[22]
• 1869 – the Academy defines the mechanical sense as the product of a force by its lever arm.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, from Latin momentum.^[25]
• 1899 – the Academy adds momento de inercia.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A very short space of time; an instant: Espera un momento, que ya bajo.^[2][1][26]
2. A period, long or short, singled out by some circumstance: Aquel verano fue el peor momento de mi vida.^[2][26]
3. The right moment, a favourable occasion; timing.^[2][1]
4. The present time: la canción del momento “the song of the day”.^[2][26]
5. Importance, weight: un asunto de poco momento.^[2][17]
6. (mechanics) momentum, the quantity of motion; in momento de una fuerza the moment of a force, and in momento de inercia the moment of inertia.^[2][1][21]
7. (Latin America, colloquial; interjection) Wait a moment!^[2][23]

Word family

• momentáneo

Related words

• mover
• movimiento
• Latin mōmentum
• French moment

Usage notes

Common phrases are al momento “at once”, por momentos “steadily, from one moment to the next”, a cada momento “constantly” and de momento “for now”.^[19][4][1]

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 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. momento
3. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. momento
4. ^ a b 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. 461
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 169
6. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. momento
7. ^ a b c d 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. momento
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2261
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. moment
10. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. moment
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 469
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. momento
16. ^ 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. momento
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, 593
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 594
19. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 517
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 669
21. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. momento
22. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. s.v. momento
23. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. momento
24. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1143
25. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 713
26. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. momento