municipalidad

Forms

municipalidad f (plural municipalidades)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish municipal + -idad.^[1][2][3][4] Its base municipal, first recorded in the Diccionario de Autoridades, is from Latin municipalis, from municipium (“a self-governing town”), a compound of munus (“office, duty”) and capere (“to take”).^[4][3] Corominas calls the whole family learned.^[4] The same formation is Catalan municipalitat, French municipalité and Italian municipalità.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first hit in the CDH is Andrés Bello's Resumen de la historia de Venezuela (1810), on the town council of Caracas: En vano quiere oponerse aquella respetable municipalidad “in vain does that respectable municipality try to resist”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word spread with the independence of Spanish America: Bolívar was named Liberator before the Municipalidad in 1813, and the Colombian constitution of 1821 kept los Cabildos o las Municipalidades.^[6] In 1846 Salvá called it a word being introduced needlessly in place of ayuntamiento or concejo.^[7] The Academy entered it in 1869 as a synonym of municipio, marked masculine, and has given it as feminine since 1899.^[8][9][10] In Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina and Peru it is the usual name of the local administration and of its seat.^[11]

Timeline

• 1810 – Andrés Bello, in Venezuela.^[6]
• 1814 – records from Uruguay and Cuzco.^[12]
• 1821 – the Colombian constitution uses it beside cabildo.^[6]
• 1846 – Domínguez defines it, and Salvá calls it a needless novelty.^[13][7]
• 1869 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[8]
• 1899 – the Academy gives it as feminine.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The town council (ayuntamiento) of a municipal district; municipality: La municipalidad aprobó el nuevo presupuesto.^[14][1][15]
2. (Latin America) The building where the local administration sits; town hall.^[11][16]

Related words

• municipio
• ayuntamiento
• cabildo

Usage notes

As the name of a particular council it is often written with a capital: la Municipalidad de Lima.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. municipio
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 188
5. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 445
6. ^ 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. municipalidad
7. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 740
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 528
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 727
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 682
11. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. municipalidad
12. ^ 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. municipalidad
13. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1235
14. ^ 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. municipalidad
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. municipalidad
16. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. municipalidad