oblación

Forms

oblación f (plural oblaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin oblātiō (“offering”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is post-classical; it was formed on oblātus, the participle of offerō (“to offer”), with the suffix -tiō, and meant the offering or tender of something.^[4][5][1] The verb is a compound of ob- (“towards”) and ferō (“to carry”).^[1] Its participle was built on another stem, which this verb took over.^[6][7]

Corominas treats the word in the family of ofrecer, beside ofrenda (about 1140, from offerenda), the older oblada (1220–1250, from oblāta (“things offered”)), the learned oblata and oblato, and oblea (1495), which came from French oblée.^[8] The same Latin word is Portuguese oblação, Catalan oblació, French oblation and Italian oblazione.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246, in a copy of the early 14th century), on the water that the priest pours sobre la oblación “on the offering” at mass.^[11] Herman the German's translation of the Psalter (1240–1272) has the plural: Huela todas tus oblaciones “may He smell all your offerings”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Siete Partidas explain the word for lay readers: oblaciones are the offerings that people make in church at the altar, or to the priest when they kiss his hand or foot during mass.^[12] The Libro de Alexandre and Alfonso X's Setenario use it beside ofrenda.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as an offering and sacrifice made to God, with quotations from two religious writers.^[13] An 18th-century Mexican history applies it to the offering of a lordship to a king: Moctezuma hizo la oblación del señorío a Carlos V.^[14] Vox distinguishes the act of offering, as of the eucharistic bread and wine at mass, from the thing offered.^[15]

Timeline

• 1228–1246 – Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa has oblación.^[11]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in a 15th-century copy) has oblaçión.^[11]
• 1256–1300 – the Siete Partidas explain oblaciones as offerings in church.^[12]
• 1650 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán, of the mass as an offering.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An offering (ofrenda) and sacrifice made to God; an oblation.^[2][17][1]
2. (formal) The act of offering something to God or a divinity, as of the bread and wine at mass (misa).^[15]

Related words

• ofrecer
• ofrenda
• oblata
• oblato
• oblea
• Latin offerō
• Portuguese oblação

Usage notes

In Roman law the oblación a la curia was a way of legitimating natural children, introduced by the emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III to make the burdensome offices of the curia more attractive.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. oblación
3. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. oblación
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. oblación
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ofrecer
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2362
10. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 535
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. oblación
12. ^ 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. oblación
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. oblación
14. ^ a b 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. oblación
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. oblación
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 750
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oblación