ocioso

Forms

ocioso (feminine ociosa, masculine plural ociosos, feminine plural ociosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ōtiōsus (“at leisure, unoccupied, idle”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The BDELC dates it, with ociosidad, to 1438, five years after the noun ocio (1433), which is from ōtium (“leisure, rest”).^[2] The Latin adjective was formed from that noun with the suffix -ōsus.^[4][1] De Vaan finds no etymology for the noun; he mentions Benveniste's view that negōtium (“business”) was a compound “non-leisure” from the start, a calque of ἀσχολία (askholía).^[5] Wiktionary gives a tentative *autiom, which de Vaan finds unattractive.^[1][5]

The same Latin word is Italian ozioso and Catalan ociós.^[6][7] In French it was inherited as Old French oisos, now French oiseux, first recorded in 1165–1170.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old Spanish Textual Archive has its first record in Juan Fernández de Heredia's Crónica de los conqueridores, a manuscript of his scriptorium in Avignon (1376–1396).^[9] The DEMel's first is López de Ayala's Rimado de palacio (about 1385).^[10] Nebrija in 1513 gave Latin otiosus and quietus as its equivalents.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was that of a person doing nothing; a chronicle of Santo Domingo of 1548 calls the native people ociosa e viciosa “idle and dissolute”.^[12] Cervantes uses it of idle hours and of palabras ociosas “idle words”.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as a person not working or a thing not put to its use, and also as what is without fruit, profit or substance.^[14] Terreros added that it was said of things that are not used, such as courage in time of peace.^[15] The Academy added the sense “unoccupied, without duties” in 1817.^[16] Modern Spanish also uses it for what is superfluous, as in es ocioso insistir.^[17][18] In several countries of Central and South America it describes uncultivated land, and in El Salvador a dishonest person.^[19][3]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Heredia's Crónica de los conqueridores has the word.^[9]
• c. 1385 – López de Ayala's Rimado de palacio.^[10]
• 1438 – the date of first record in the BDELC.^[2]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin otiosus and quietus.^[11]
• 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “idle” and “fruitless”.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “unoccupied”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[20]

Meanings

Adjective

1. idle: not working, doing nothing; unoccupied (desocupado) or free of obligations: Pasó el verano ocioso en el pueblo.^[3][17][1]
2. Useless (inútil), without fruit or profit: un debate ocioso.^[3][18][1]
3. Of a thing: not being used for its purpose: Las grúas están ociosas desde enero.^[3][18]
4. superfluous, unnecessary: Es ocioso repetirlo.^[17][18]
5. (Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay) Of land: uncultivated.^[3][19]
6. (El Salvador) Of a person: dishonest (deshonesto).^[3][19]

Noun

1. An idler.^[1][3]

Related words

• ocio
• ociosidad
• negocio
• Latin ōtium
• French oiseux

Usage notes

Palabra ociosa “idle word” is a set phrase of religious and moral writing;^[3][14] Autoridades quotes a Flos sanctorum on palabras ociosas y de murmuración.^[3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ocio
3. ^ 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. ocioso
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 547
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 521
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. oiseux
9. ^ 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. ocioso
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ocioso
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 388
12. ^ 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. ocioso
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 800
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 16
15. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 692
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 609
17. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ocioso
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ocioso
19. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. ocioso
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 753