pánico

Forms

pánico (feminine pánica, masculine plural pánicos, feminine plural pánicas)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas takes it borrowed from Ancient Greek πανικόν (panikón, “panic”), short for a phrase meaning “terror caused by Pan”, the woodland god to whom unexplained noises heard in mountains and valleys were attributed.^[2][3] The DLE derives it instead from French panique, and the DRAE of 2001 and Moliner from Latin panicus.^[4][5][6]

In Greek the adjective πανικός (panikós, “of Pan”), formed from Πάν (Pán) with -ικός (-ikós), was used of groundless fears, and its neuter served as a noun for panic.^[1][7] French borrowed the same Greek adjective in 1534.^[8] The origin of the god's name is obscure.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it to the middle of the 17th century, in Baltasar Gracián; it is still missing in Covarrubias, Oudin, Góngora and the Quijote.^[2][3] Autoridades quotes Gracián's Criticón: con pánico terror se desvanecen “they vanish in panic terror”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word was first an adjective of fear: Autoridades defined it as great fear or extreme cowardice without any cause, and a record of 1789 from New Granada has el pánico temor.^[10][11] In 1846–1847 Domínguez noted that it was beginning to be used as a noun, as in a piece of news that caused a panic in business circles, and called this a plain Gallicism.^[12] The Academy in 1869 recorded that some used it as a masculine noun, and Alemany in 1917 marked the noun use as normal.^[13][14] Corominas notes that it has become a fairly common word.^[2]

In Puerto Rico drug users call a shortage of drugs, or a police drug raid, pánico.^[15][16] The DTME reports that the Spanish medical academy advises against the word in the sense “anxiety”, as an anglicism.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1650 – first record, in Gracián's Criticón: pánico terror.^[2][10]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades enters it as an adjective of fear.^[10]
• 1789 – el pánico temor in New Granada.^[11]
• 1846–1847 – Domínguez records the new noun use as a Gallicism.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy notes the noun use.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Greek.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the god Pan.^[4][1]
2. Of fear or terror: extreme, often collective and contagious.^[4][1]

Noun

1. panic: a sudden, very intense fear, often seizing a crowd: Al oír la explosión cundió el pánico.^[4][1][19]
2. (Puerto Rico, drug slang) A shortage of drugs; a police drug raid.^[15][16]

Related words

• French panique
• English panic

Usage notes

Tener pánico a something or someone means to be very afraid of it.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 370
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pánico
4. ^ a b c d 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. pánico
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. pánico
6. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pánico
7. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
10. ^ 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, 107
11. ^ 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. pánico
12. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1324
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
14. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1255
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pánico
16. ^ 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. pánico
17. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. pánico
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 784
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pánico