negación

Forms

negación f (plural negaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin negātiō (“denial, refusal”).^[2][1] The BDELC lists it under the inherited verb negar, recorded from 1044, and dates the noun to 1490; the CDH has it in a judicial sentence of 1324.^[3][4]

The Latin noun is formed from negō (“to say no, deny”) with the suffix -tiō.^[5][1] Wiktionary derives the verb from ne (“not”).^[1] The same Latin word gave Portuguese negação, Catalan negació, French négation and Italian negazione.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is a carta de sentencia of 1324, where the court has seen la negaçión & la respuesta “the denial and the answer” of one of the parties, the legal sense of a party's denial of a claim.^[4] A sentence of 1379 uses it the same way.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word passed into logic and theology: the Tostado writes that a pure negaçion is nothing at all, and the Espéculo de los legos defines an oath as an affirmation or negation confirmed by a holy witness.^[4] Nebrija in 1492 and about 1495 gives Latin negatio, abiuratio and inficiatio as its equivalents.^[7] Autoridades in 1734 has three senses: the act of denying (with Saint Peter's denial of Christ), the total lack of something, and the negative particle, as the schools called it.^[8] The modern Academy dictionary adds the grammatical and philosophical category of negation.^[2] In medicine it is also a name for anosognosia, the denial of one's own illness.^[9]

Timeline

• 1324 – first hit in the CDH, in a judicial sentence.^[4]
• 1437 – the Tostado's Libro de las paradojas uses it in its philosophical sense.^[4]
• 1490 – first record according to Corominas.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary.^[7]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[10]
• 1734 – Autoridades gives the act of denying, total lack and the negative particle.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or result of denying (negar); a denial or refusal: La negación de los hechos no le sirvió de nada.^[2][1][11]
2. Total lack or absence of something.^[2]
3. (philosophy, grammar) The semantic category to which the words that deny belong.^[2]
4. (grammar) A word that expresses negation, such as no or nunca.^[2][11]
5. (medicine) anosognosia.^[9]

Related words

• negar
• negativo
• denegación
• afirmación
• Latin negātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. negación
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. negar
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. negación
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. negació
7. ^ 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. negación
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. negación
9. ^ 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. negación
10. ^ 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. negación
11. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. negación