obispo

Forms

obispo m (plural obispos, feminine obispa, feminine plural obispas)^[1] Old Spanish also had bispo, the form Berceo uses, and texts show vispe, abispo and hobispo.^[2][3][4] There is a feminine obispa for women bishops of churches such as the Anglican.^[1][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin episcopus (“overseer; bishop”), in a semi-learned form; the Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “guardian, protector, overseer”).^[7][5][1][8] The Greek word is formed from ἐπί (epí, “over”) and σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”); the BDELC relates it to ἐπισκέπτομαι (episképtomai, “I examine, inspect”).^[1][7] Homer uses it of Hector as the city's guardian and of the gods as watchers over pacts, and the First Epistle of Peter calls Christ the overseer of souls.^[9] In Latin the word meant an overseer in general, and in Church Latin a bishop.^[10] Gómez de Silva traces the noun to the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *spek- (“to look”), by metathesis.^[11]

The same Latin word is Portuguese bispo, Galician bispo, Catalan bisbe, French évêque and Italian vescovo.^[12][4] It was also borrowed as Basque apezpiku.^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses obispo for don Jerónimo, the bishop the Cid sets up in Valencia.^[2][7] The DEMel's first record in a dated document is a Leonese charter of 1171.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's histories also call the priests of pagans and Jews obispos.^[14] The diminutive obispillo named the rump of a bird by about 1330, from its likeness to a bishop's mitre, and a large blood sausage by 1495; today obispo itself also means such a sausage.^[7][5] Autoridades recorded a sea monster in the form of a bishop with a mitre, and in the thieves' slang of Juan Hidalgo the word meant a cock.^[15] By the end of the 19th century the fish was identified as a kind of ray whose snout recalls a mitre.^[16][5]

In Mexico obispo is a four-horned ram, in Honduras a round sweet bun and in Colombia a very large sausage.^[17][6][18] In the Canaries the name goes to a small late swarm of bees and to several fishes.^[19][20] The Spanish word passed into the languages of the Philippines, as Tagalog obispo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[7][2]
• 1171 – a Leonese charter, the DEMel's first dated record.^[3]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the adjective obispal and the noun obispalía.^[7]
• c. 1260 – first record of arzobispo.^[7]
• c. 1330 – obispillo “rump of a bird”.^[7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders it with Latin praesul, antistes and episcopus.^[21]
• 1520 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[22]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the sea monster and the slang sense “cock”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. In the Catholic Church, a bishop: the prelate who governs a diocese.^[5][1]
2. (masculine and feminine) In other Christian churches, such as the Anglican, a cleric who governs a diocese.^[5][6]
3. (zoology) A large ray with a long spiny tail and a snout shaped like a mitre.^[5][23]
4. A large blood sausage.^[5][23]
5. (Mexico) A ram with four horns.^[6][17]
6. (Honduras) A round sweet bun topped with blackberry jam.^[18]

Word family

• obispado
• obispal
• arzobispo
• obispillo
• obispalía

Related words

• episcopal
• episcopado
• Latin episcopus
• Portuguese bispo
• Catalan bisbe

Usage notes

An obispo auxiliar is a bishop without his own diocese who assists another bishop.^[5][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 363
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. obispo
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2438
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. obispo
6. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. obispo
7. ^ 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. obispo
8. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. obispo
9. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ἐπίσκοπος
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. episcopus
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 499
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. episcopus
13. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 253
14. ^ 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. obispo
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 3
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 703
17. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 766
18. ^ 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. obispo
19. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. obispo
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. obispo
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 388
22. ^ 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. obispo
23. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. obispo
24. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1209