oficial

Forms

oficial m or f (masculine and feminine plural oficiales)^[1] Old Spanish wrote oficial, official, ofiçial and offiçial; the Crónica de veinte reyes has alficiales.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin officiālis (“relating to duty; an attendant, an official”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin adjective is formed on officium (“service, duty, office”) with the suffix -ālis.^[6][1] Corominas takes the noun as a contraction of opificium, from opifex (“craftsman”), a compound of opus (“work”) and faciō (“to make”);^[4][5][1] Wiktionary instead derives that word from ops (“power, resources”).^[4][5][1]

In Late Latin the noun named a magistrate's attendant, and in Medieval Latin a member of a craft, a holder of a church office and a household or manorial officer.^[7][8][9] Meyer-Lübke notes that the Spanish word came to mean “craftsman”, while in Old French and Portuguese it named an officer of state; Italian ufficiale means a military officer.^[10] The same Latin word gave Portuguese oficial and English official.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the prose of Alfonso X: a legal text of about 1284 speaks of someone who had been oficial en la corte del rey, one of those who must render accounts.^[11][12] The second part of the Estoria de España (1284–1345) uses it as an adjective, of omnes onrrados officiales sent as envoys.^[11] Corominas dates it from the Corbacho (1438) and Nebrija, whose Vocabulario gives it in the sense of a public office, Latin magistratus.^[5][4][13]

Semantic evolution

The commonest early sense was the craftsman, the person who works at an oficio.^[14][5] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives that sense, the skilled worker who has not yet become a master, and the military officer from ensign up.^[14] In the Canaries an oficial de azúcar was a sugar-mill worker between apprentice and master (1531).^[15] In Mexico in 1537 a contract promised to leave an apprentice ofiçial e maestro in the silversmith's trade.^[16]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds the office clerk under a head, the executioner, the butcher who cuts and weighs meat, the town's alcaldes and regidores, and the judge of a church court.^[17] The adjective “of office, not private” first appears in its edition of 1884.^[18] Mexican popular speech says novio oficial or visita oficial for what is authorised or recognised.^[19] In Puerto Rico oficial means a police officer, under the influence of English officer.^[20] In Panama oficial is used as an adverb, “yes, agreed”.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 1284 – oficial en la corte del rey in a legal text of Alfonso X's prose.^[11][12]
• 1284–1345 – the adjective in the second part of the Estoria de España.^[11]
• 1438 – Corominas's date of first record, from the Corbacho.^[4][5]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin magistratus.^[13]
• 1531 – oficial de açúcar in the ordinances of Gran Canaria.^[15]
• 1537 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the craftsman, the journeyman and the military officer.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the clerk, the executioner and the butcher.^[17]
• 1884 – the adjective “official, not private” enters the Academy's dictionary.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. official: issued by the authority of the State: la versión oficial de los hechos.^[3][1]
2. Of an institution, building or school: paid for with public funds and dependent on the State or regional authorities.^[3]
3. Of a student: enrolled at an official school and attending its classes.^[3]
4. Recognised by someone with the authority to do so.^[3][22]
5. (courtly style) Obliging, diligent.^[3]

Noun

1. A person who works at a trade.^[3]
2. In a manual trade, a worker who has finished the apprenticeship but is not yet a master; a journeyman.^[3][1]
3. A clerk who prepares business in an office under a head.^[3]
4. (military) An officer ranking from alférez to capitán, or the naval equivalent.^[3][1]
5. In public administration, a person in an intermediate post.^[3]
6. An executioner (verdugo).^[3][1]
7. A butcher who cuts and weighs the meat.^[3][1]
8. A diocesan judge (provisor).^[3]

Word family

• oficialía
• suboficial
• oficialidad
• oficiala

Related words

• oficio
• oficina
• oficioso
• Latin officium
• English official

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. oficial
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. oficial
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oficio
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 297
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b 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. 506
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. officialis
11. ^ a b c d 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. oficial
12. ^ 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. oficial
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 388
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 21
15. ^ a b 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. oficial
16. ^ 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. oficial
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 610
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. 754
19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 770
20. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. oficial
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. oficial
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oficial