oración

Forms

oración f (plural oraciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ōrātiō (“speech, language; in Late Latin, prayer”), a learned word.^[2][1][3] The DCECH and the BDELC treat it as a derivative of orar, itself taken from ōrō (“to speak; to plead, pray”).^[4][5] The Latin noun is formed on that verb with the suffix -tiō.^[6][1] De Vaan takes the verb as a derivative of ōs (“mouth”), a view Wiktionary reports beside a link with *h₂er- (“to pronounce a ritual”).^[7][1]

According to the DHLF, the Latin noun meant a prepared, artful speech, as opposed to sermō, and only in Christian Latin, from the early 3rd century, prayer.^[8] Bénaben notes that Spanish keeps the old sense “discourse” in grammar, in the term for the parts of speech.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese oração, French oraison and Romanian urăciune;^[9][1] Wiktionary notes that the Romance forms are learned borrowings too, though the French may be a very early one.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word for prayer: the Cid kneels in Santa María, and la oración fecha, luego cavalgava “his prayer said, he mounted at once”.^[10][4][5] The DCECH notes that the noun was much more popular than the verb orar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The early texts use it for a prayer to God or the saints, as in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar and Berceo.^[10][11] The grammatical sense “a unit of discourse with a complete meaning” appears in Alfonso de Palencia in 1490 and in Nebrija, who translated Latin grammatical oratio by it.^[4][5][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the speech “composed with art to persuade” first, then the prayer, and the logical sense of a statement that affirms or denies.^[13]

The bell rung at nightfall for prayer, and the hour itself, are also called las oraciones, and in Argentina la oración came to mean dusk, as in hasta la oración cerrada.^[2][4] In modern grammar the word names the structure of subject and predicate, with many types (oración simple, subordinada, activa).^[2][14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses oración for prayer.^[10][4]
• c. 1240–1272 – Herman el Alemán's translation of the Psalter, the CDH's earliest witness of its own date.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for a prayer to God.^[11]
• 1490 – Palencia uses it as a grammatical term.^[4][5]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary renders oratio as la oracion gramatical.^[12]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the speech, the prayer and the logical proposition.^[13]
• 1940 – La Prensa of Buenos Aires uses la oración for nightfall.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Prayer, the act of praying: Pasó la tarde en oración.^[2][15]
2. A prayer: the words used to pray, usually set by the liturgy: Rezó una oración por los difuntos.^[2][15][1]
3. An oration: a speech delivered in public to persuade or move the hearers: oración fúnebre.^[2][1]
4. (grammar) A sentence or clause: a structure made of a subject and a predicate; also a statement with complete sense.^[2][1]
5. (religion) In the Mass and the office, the particular prayer commemorating the saint or feast of the day.^[2][15]
6. (in the plural) The first part of the Christian doctrine taught to children, with the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary.^[2]
7. (in the plural) The bell calling to prayer at nightfall; the hour of dusk.^[2][4]

Word family

• oracional

Related words

• orar
• orador
• oratorio
• oráculo
• adorar
• Latin ōrātiō
• French oraison

Usage notes

Partes de la oración is the traditional term for the parts of speech.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. oración
3. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. oración
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 288
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. orar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ōrātiō
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ōrō
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. oraison
9. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2405
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. oración
11. ^ 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. oración
12. ^ 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. oración
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. oración
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. oración
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oración