pérdida

Forms

pérdida f (plural pérdidas)^[1] Old Castilian also had pierda and pierdida;^[2] perda is found in popular Castilian and perta in Rioja.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin perdita (“loss”), the feminine past participle of perdō (“to lose, destroy”) used as a noun.^[3][1][4] Corominas calls it a semi-learned descendant of the Latin word, not a fully popular one.^[4][5][1] Medieval Latin has it for “loss”, also in the forms perduta and perdida.^[6]

The same Latin noun is Portuguese perda, Galician perda, Catalan perda, French perte and Italian perdita.^[7][2][8] The verb is formed with per- (“through”) and dō (“to give; to put”).^[1] Corominas explains the compound as “to give away completely”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has it at line 2320, where the two brothers say they look to the gain and not the loss: Catamos la ganancia e la pérdida no “we look to the gain and not to the loss”.^[9][10] Menéndez Pidal glosses it there as “damage, harm”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word meant both the act of losing something and the harm one suffers; a book of 1256 warns a merchant that his goods will sell only con perdida “at a loss”.^[11] Nebrija rendered it with Latin amissio and perditio.^[12]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 defined it as the act of losing, the damage suffered and the amount lost; by 1869 it also listed a stroke in billiards and the phrase a pérdidas y ganancias, of sharing in the risk and profit of a venture.^[13][14] Baralt objected in 1855 to the use of pérdida for perdición “ruin” and to the French-style phrase a pérdida, which he did not consider Spanish.^[15]

Modern dictionaries add a leak of a liquid or gas and, in the plural, bleeding from the womb outside the period.^[16][17] The euphemism for the death of a loved one, absent from the 2001 edition, is in the current one.^[18][3] In Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama and much of South America it also means a miscarriage.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has la ganancia e la pérdida.^[9][4]
• 1256 – an Alfonsine book uses con perdida “at a loss”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin amissio and perditio.^[12]
• 1524 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[20]
• 1855 – Baralt censures the gallicism a pérdida.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy lists the billiards sense and the phrase a pérdidas y ganancias.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. loss: being without something one had: la pérdida del empleo.^[3][1]
2. damage or harm suffered by something.^[3]
3. An amount or thing that is lost, especially money, often in the plural: La empresa cerró el año con pérdidas.^[3][16]
4. (billiards) A losing hazard (billa limpia).^[3]
5. (euphemistic) The death of a loved one or of a notable person.^[3]
6. A leak of a liquid or gas.^[16][1]
7. (in the plural) Bleeding from the womb outside menstruation.^[17][16]
8. (parts of Latin America) A miscarriage.^[19]

Related words

• perder
• perdición
• perdido
• desperdicio
• French perte
• Italian perdita

Usage notes

No tener pérdida is said of a place that is easy to find;^[3] estar or ir a pérdidas y ganancias means to share in the loss or gain of a venture.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4938
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. pérdida
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 488
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perder
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. perdita
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6403
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. perte
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pérdida
10. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 386
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. pérdida
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. pérdida
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 660
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 593
15. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 514
16. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pérdida
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pérdida
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. pérdida
19. ^ 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. pérdida
20. ^ 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. pérdida