necesario

Forms

necesario (feminine necesaria, masculine plural necesarios, feminine plural necesarias)^[1] Old Spanish spellings include necessario, nesçesario, nesçessario and neçesario.^[2] Necessario was the usual spelling until the 18th century.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable; indispensable”).^[4][5][1] The same Latin word gave Portuguese necessário, Catalan necessari and French nécessaire.^[6][7][8]

The Latin adjective is formed from necesse (“unavoidable, necessary”) with the suffix -ārius.^[1] The Oxford Latin Dictionary derives this from ne- (“not”) and cēdō (“to yield, go away”), so “that from which one cannot withdraw”, an explanation the DHLF gives as a proposal.^{[9][1][8][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1220–1250, the same period as necesidad.^[4] In Alfonso X's prose (1254) it already has the sense “required”: dixiemos loque era necessario en esto “we have said what was needed on this”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades gives first the philosophical sense “what must necessarily be or happen”, then “done under compulsion, as opposed to voluntary”, then “what is needed for an end”.^[3] The Academy's 1817 dictionary adds an old legal sense, the heredero necesario, an heir who was the testator's slave; the 1869 edition records hacerse el necesario “to make oneself out to be indispensable”.^[12][13]

The feminine noun necesaria “latrine”, recorded from 1490, follows the Medieval Latin use of necessaria for a privy.^[4][14] The French form of the same word came back into Spanish as neceser “toiletry case” in 1855.^[4]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the first record according to Corominas.^[4]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's prose: loque era necessario.^[11]
• 1490 – the feminine noun necesaria “latrine”.^[4]
• 1534 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[15]
• 1855 – neceser, from French nécessaire.^[4]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary records hacerse el necesario.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. necessary, indispensable; needed for some purpose: Llevad la ropa necesaria para el viaje.^[5][1]
2. That must inevitably be or happen: el final necesario de aquella guerra.^[5]
3. Done under compulsion, as opposed to voluntary or spontaneous.^[5]
4. (philosophy) Of a cause: acting without freedom, by the determination of its nature.^[5]
5. (law, historical) Of an heir, especially a slave or serf of the testator: obliged to accept the inheritance.^[5]

Noun

1. (feminine, necesaria) A latrine.^[5][4]

Word family

• innecesario
• necesariamente

Related words

• necesidad
• necesitar
• neceser
• Latin necessārius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. necesario
3. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 656
4. ^ 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. necesidad
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. necesario
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2324
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. necessari
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. necesario
11. ^ 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. necesario
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 596
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 534
14. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
15. ^ 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. necesario