nominativo

Forms

nominativo (feminine nominativa, masculine plural nominativos, feminine plural nominativas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nōminātīvus (“serving to name; nominative”), a learned word of the family of nombre.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin adjective is formed from nōminō (“to name”) and the suffix -īvus; the verb comes from nōmen (“name”).^[5][1][6] As a term of grammar the Latin word was a calque of Ancient Greek ὀνομαστική (onomastikḗ), and the Latin grammarians explained it as the case used for naming.^[1][5] Corominas glosses the Spanish word as properly “the case that serves to name someone”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century, as a term of grammar.^[4] The earliest record in the Old Spanish textual archive is in Nebrija's Gramática castellana, printed in Salamanca in 1492.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical sense came first: the Autoridades of 1734 defines it as the first of the six cases in which a noun is declined, and gives a second, transferred sense in the plural, the rudiments of any art or subject, from the declensions that Latin pupils learned first.^[8][9] Lope de Vega's Dorotea plays on it: a lover studies los nominativos de tu casamiento “the first lessons of your marriage”.^[8] In 1571 a grammar of Nahuatl printed in Mexico City set out a noun's nominativo and genitivo in the Latin way.^[10]

The commercial sense, of shares or bonds issued in a named person's favour and not to the bearer, entered the Academy's dictionary in 1869.^[11] In 1884 the Academy added the plural for the part of Latin grammar that came before the verbs.^[12] The figurative plural is now marked as colloquial and dated, while the commercial sense lives on in cheque nominativo and acciones nominativas.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1492 – Nebrija's Gramática castellana uses the word.^[7]
• 1571 – a Nahuatl grammar from Mexico City sets out the nominativo of nouns.^[10]
• 1734 – the Autoridades gives the case and the plural sense “rudiments”.^[8]
• 1846 – Domínguez records it as an adjective, “naming”.^[9]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the commercial sense.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin and the plural for a part of Latin grammar.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (commerce) Of a security (título) or registered entry: made out in the name of a particular person, as opposed to one payable to the bearer (portador): acciones nominativas.^[3][4]

Noun

1. (grammar) The nominative case (caso), which generally marks the subject of the verb.^[3][1]
2. (grammar) A word or phrase in the nominative case.^[3][1]
3. (in the plural, colloquial, dated) The rudiments of any art or subject.^[3][8]

Related words

• nombre
• nombrar
• nominal
• nómina
• Latin nōmen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nombre
3. ^ 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. nominativo
4. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. nominativo
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. nōminātīuus
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 490
7. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. nominativo
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 677
9. ^ a b 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, 1260
10. ^ a b c 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. nominativo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 540
12. ^ 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. 742