muchedumbre

Forms

muchedumbre f (plural muchedumbres)^[1] Old Spanish forms include muchedumne, muchidumne, muchadunbre, muchedunbre and munchedunbre.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish muchedumne, inherited from Latin multitūdō (“a great number, crowd”).^[4][1][5] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of mucho, with the early forms muchadumbre and the one above, both from the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][6] The ⟨ch⟩ is that of the adjective, from multus (“much, many”).^[2][1]

The Latin noun is formed from that adjective with the suffix -tūdō.^[7][1] De Vaan traces the adjective to *molto-, and only doubtfully to a Proto-Indo-European form meaning “good, big”.^[8]

The learned doublet of the same Latin word is multitud.^[2][6][1] Italian moltitudine is the Italian word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

La fazienda de Ultra Mar, a Castilian biblical travel book of the first half of the 13th century, has the form muchedumpre.^[3] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, known from later copies) gives the sense “great number”: Alexander knew que omne nunca puede vençer por muchedumbre “that one can never win by numbers”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval prose the word meant “great quantity, abundance” of anything, people or things: the Lapidario of Alfonso X speaks of the muchedumbre de las estrellas “the multitude of the stars”.^[10] Autoridades (1734) defines it as the abundance and multitude of anything.^[11] Terreros adds “a crowd of people” and “the common people”.^[12]

From 1884 the Academy speaks of “persons or things”, and in modern use the word mostly means a large crowd of people.^[13][4][14] Moliner notes that of things it is used only of separate, countable things, such as birds, trees or ships.^[15] Barcia (1880–1883) contrasted muchedumbre, mere number, with multitud, which suggested noise and confusion.^[16]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has muchedumpre.^[3]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has muchadumbre and muchedumne.^[2]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the multitude of the stars; the date in Corominas's Breve diccionario.^[10][6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin multitudo and agmen.^[17]
• 1535 – first record in the Americas, from Mexico.^[18]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines the word.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from mucho.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crowd, a large number of people gathered together: La muchedumbre llenó la plaza.^[4][14][1]
2. A great number of animals or things, a multitude: una muchedumbre de gaviotas.^[4][15]

Related words

• mucho
• multitud
• Latin multitūdō

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 178
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. muchedumbre
4. ^ a b c d 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. muchedumbre
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. muchedumbre
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mucho
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. muchedumbre
10. ^ 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. muchedumbre
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 622
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 630
13. ^ 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. 723
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. muchedumbre
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. muchedumbre
16. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 838
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 383
18. ^ 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. muchedumbre