organizar

Forms

organizar (first-person singular present organizo, first-person singular preterite organicé, past participle organizado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish órgano + -izar: Corominas lists it among the derivatives of that noun, first recorded at the beginning of the 15th century in the Cancionero de Baena, and DICCA-XV calls it a derivative of the noun.^[2][3][4] The DLE and Wiktionary derive it instead from French organiser.^[5][1] The French verb meant first “to make fit for life” (about 1380), then “to furnish a body with organs” (1510–1520), and only from 1789, in Sieyès, “to give a structure to”.^[6] Wiktionary traces it to Medieval Latin organizō, formed from Latin organum (“instrument, organ”) with the suffix -izō, or borrowed directly from Ancient Greek ὀργανίζω (organízō).^[1]

The noun goes back through Latin to Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “tool, instrument; bodily organ”), a derivative of ἔργον (érgon, “deed, work”).^[2][1] Wiktionary derives this from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom, the source also of the English word work.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in the Cancionero de Baena, early in the 15th century.^[2][3] The early texts in the CDH use the verb, mostly in the participle, of a body formed with its organs: Enrique de Villena's glosses on the Aeneid (1427–1428) speak of a cuerpo organizado, and El Tostado (1437) of flesh formed organizándola en conveniente armonía.^[7] The 1494 translation of Ketham's Compendio de la humana salud says that a child born in the seventh month lives because it already has all its members organizados.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades used the verb for tuning an organ, a sense it says Covarrubias already gives, and also for forming the body of an animal with all the organs it needs, quoting Fray Luis de Granada.^[8] Terreros gave the same two senses, with French organiser and Italian organizzare as equivalents.^[9] The figurative “to arrange, put in order” is in the Academy's dictionary of 1817,^[10] and in 1884 it defined the modern sense: to set up or reform something by ordering the number, order and dependence of its parts.^[11]

Today it means to plan and prepare something, to coordinate people and means for an end, and, reflexively, to arrange one's own time and affairs; the organ sense is obsolete.^[5][12] The Americas record begins in Mexico in 1887, with an administration being organized.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – French organiser “to make fit for life”.^[6]
• 1400–1425 – the Cancionero de Baena, Corominas's first record.^[2]
• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena has cuerpo organizado.^[7]
• 1494 – the translation of Ketham's Compendio de la humana salud.^[7]
• c. 1580 – Fray Luis de Granada.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records tuning an organ and forming a body with its organs.^[8]
• 1789 – French organiser takes the political sense “to give a structure to”.^[6]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the figurative “to arrange, put in order”.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy defines the modern sense.^[11]
• 1887 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To set up or reform something for a purpose, coordinating the people and means needed; to organize: Organizaron una colecta para la escuela.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To put something in order; to arrange.^[5][14]
3. (transitive, also pronominal) To make or start something, such as a row or a commotion.^[5]
4. (pronominal) Of a person, to arrange one's activities or divide one's time.^[5][12]
5. (obsolete) To tune an organ (órgano).^[5][8]

Word family

• organización
• organizador

Related words

• órgano
• orgánico
• organismo
• French organiser

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 296
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. órgano
4. ^ 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. organizar
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. organizar
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 54
9. ^ 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, 720
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 619
11. ^ 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. 765
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. organizar
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, p. s.v. organizar
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. organizar