operación

Forms

operación f (plural operaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin operātiō (“work, working; operation”), a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin noun is formed from operor (“to be at work”) with the suffix -tiō.^[5][1] The verb is derived from opus (“work”),^[2][6] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-os (“work”).^[7]

From the same Latin verb Spanish inherited obrar “to work, act”, beside obra from the plural noun opera; the learned verb operar is recorded only from 1737, long after the noun.^[2] The same learned borrowing is Portuguese operação, Galician operación, Asturian operación, Catalan operació and Italian operazione.^{[8][9][10][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alfonso X's Libro del Alcora (1277, in a copy of the same period), where the reader finds the same result “doing this operation” at any degree of the zodiac: faziendo esta operacion en qual grado quier de los grados del zodiago.^[11][12] The sense is the carrying out of a working or procedure.^[12] The BDELC and Segura Munguía, without this text, date the word 1433.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In 14th-century texts the word is used of the “operation” or activity ascribed to Christ in the debates over his wills, una voluntad & una operaçion, and in the plural of the workings of magical arts.^[11] In 16th-century texts from the Americas it means the effect of a remedy or a plant (tienen las mismas operaciones, Mexico 1576), and the Diccionario de Autoridades still gives this sense, saying that remedies have had a good operation or none.^[13][14] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary (1492) glosses operatio as aquel obrar “that working”.^[15]

The surgical sense appears in the 19th-century dictionaries, which define it as the hand, alone or with an instrument, applied to the living body to cure a disease or correct a defect; the Academy added operación cesárea in 1899.^[16][17] The DLE now adds the commercial sense, a deal in securities or goods, and the mathematical one, a set of rules for obtaining results from data.^[3] Moliner and the Wikcionario also record military and police operations.^[18][19]

In Puerto Rico the word has taken from English the sense “management, running” of an activity.^[20] In Chile it was a euphemism for the castration of animals.^[21] Spanish America has many set phrases, such as Mexican operación cajón, for an employee who stops work with tasks unfinished when the working day ends, and operación rastrillo in Argentina and Uruguay, a police or military round-up.^[22]

Timeline

• 1277 – Alfonso X's Libro del Alcora, the first record.^[11][12]
• p. 1350 – the translation of Jacques de Vitry's Historia uses it of Christ's “operation”.^[11]
• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia writes of the “contrary operations” of magical arts.^[11]
• 1433 – the date given by the BDELC.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin operatio.^[15]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives “action of working” and “effect” (of remedies).^[14]
• 1737 – the verb operar is first recorded.^[2]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary adds operación cesárea.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action and effect of operating; the carrying out of something.^[3][23]
2. (surgery) A surgical operation: Después de la operación de rodilla estuvo un mes en reposo.^[1][23][24]
3. (military, police) A set of actions carried out to a plan with a given aim.^[18][19]
4. (commerce) A deal or transaction in securities or goods: operación de bolsa.^[3][18]
5. (mathematics) A set of rules for obtaining quantities or expressions (the results) from given ones (the data), as in addition or division: La resta es una operación sencilla.^[3][18]
6. (Puerto Rico) The running or management of an activity, process or business.^[20]
7. (Chile, euphemism) The castration of an animal.^[21]

Word family

• operacional
• operación cesárea

Related words

• operar
• obrar
• obra
• ópera
• operario
• Latin operātiō

Usage notes

Operación cesárea is the medical term for a caesarean section, and base de operaciones is the place where an army prepares for war.^[3][4] Venezuela calls a go-slow strike operación morrocoy.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. obrar
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. operación
4. ^ a b c 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. 512
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. operación
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. operação
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. operación
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. operació
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
12. ^ a b c 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. operación
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, s.v. operación
15. ^ a b 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. operación
16. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 585
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 714
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
19. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
20. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. operación
21. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 567
22. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
23. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
24. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. operación