negocio

Forms

negocio m (plural negocios)^[1] Old Spanish texts write negocio and negoçio, with the plural negocios or negoçios.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin negōtium (“occupation, business, affair”), a learned word.^[4][5][1][6] Corominas dates it 1220–1250, two centuries before its base ocio, which is first recorded in 1433.^[4][7]

The Latin noun is a negative formation from ōtium (“leisure, rest”), with nec (“not”).^[8][1] Bénaben traces it to Latin phrases meaning “I have no leisure”, so that the noun first meant “lack of leisure”, then “occupation, affair” and also “difficulty, trouble”.^[6] Gómez de Silva glosses it literally as “what is not leisure”.^[9] De Vaan reports Benveniste's view that it was a compound from the start, meaning “non-leisure, obstacle”, perhaps modelled on Ancient Greek ἀσχολία (askholía, “lack of leisure; occupation”); he notes that this leaves unexplained why the Romans did not form *in-ōtium, and that the word for leisure itself has no etymology.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hits in the CDH are Latin charters of 1218 and 1239, which use the Latin word.^[3] In Spanish it appears in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), in the plural, for errands or business that a debtor goes about: en requa o en otros negoçios yr quisiere “wishes to go with a mule train or on other business”.^[3] Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) uses it for a matter someone has brought to a good end: como qui su negocio ha tan bien recabdado “as one who has carried out his business so well”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Golden Age Spanish the word meant any occupation, matter or affair, the sense of the Latin word.^[11][12] Nebrija defined it as the opposite of ocio.^[13][14] Covarrubias in 1611 described it as the care a person must give to a particular matter, and quoted a scholastic play on words that read negotium as “denying leisure”.^[15] Autoridades calls it a generic term for any occupation, employment or work, and also a pending suit, claim or dealing.^[12]

The commercial sense grew from these.^[16][17] The Academy's 1817 dictionary added “the profit or gain obtained in a dealing”, as in fulano hizo negocio “so-and-so made a profit”.^[16] The 1869 edition added anything that is the object of a profitable occupation, and the 1884 edition, the first to give the etymology, recorded negocio redondo “a very profitable deal”.^[17][18] The sense “shop” was condemned as a barbarism of the Americas by Alemany in 1917, and in Chile by Román, who also rejected the general sense “affair” as French.^[19][20] Baralt had already called ese es mi negocio “that is my business” a Gallicism in 1855.^[21] The DLE now gives both the commercial senses and “premises where business is done”.^[5]

Moliner notes that the old general sense survives only in phrases such as “it is none of your business”.^[22] Domínguez in 1846 recorded the proverb Al alma del negocio va todo el mundo, al negocio del alma no va ninguno, meaning that people care more for the body's interests than for the soul's.^[23] In Venezuela and Puerto Rico el negocio es que introduces the real state of things, “the thing is that”.^[24][25]

Timeline

• 1218 – a Latin charter of Burgos uses Latin negocio, the earliest hit in the CDH.^[3]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has the Spanish plural negoçios.^[3]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date of first record.^[4]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses it in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin negotium as its equivalent.^[13][14]
• 1527 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[26]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it and lists negociar, negociante and negociación.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy records the sense “profit”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the phrase negocio redondo.^[18]
• 1917 – Alemany labels the sense “shop” of the Americas a barbarism.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. An occupation, task or piece of work;^[5][22] (now mostly in phrases) a matter or concern: Lo que haga con su dinero no es negocio mío.^[5][22]
2. A pending matter, claim or dealing.^[5]
3. business: an activity of buying and selling for profit, or a firm that carries it on: Montó un negocio de muebles con su hermano.^[5][22][1]
4. A deal or transaction; the action of negotiating.^[5][1]
5. profit or advantage gained from a dealing: Vender ahora no es negocio.^[5][1]
6. Business premises; a shop.^[5][1]

Word family

• negociar
• agronegocio
• negociante
• negociación

Related words

• ocio
• Latin negōtium
• Latin ōtium

Usage notes

Set phrases include negocio redondo “a very profitable deal” and, in law, negocio jurídico “legal act”.^[5] Moliner notes the ironic use of buen negocio and bonito negocio for a bad bargain or any blunder.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. negocio
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. negocio
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. negocio
5. ^ 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. negocio
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. negocio
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ocio
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 484
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1908–1914), Tesoro de la lengua castellana: origen y vida del lenguaje, 12 vols., Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. s.v. negocio
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 660
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 386
14. ^ 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. negocio
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1161
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 597
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 535
18. ^ 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. 736
19. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1189
20. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 1
21. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 460
22. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. negocio
23. ^ 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, 1249
24. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. negocio
25. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 261
26. ^ 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. negocio