pésimo

Forms

pésimo (feminine pésima, masculine plural pésimos, feminine plural pésimas, superlative (proscribed) pesimísimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pessimus (“worst, very bad”), the Latin superlative that went with the comparative pēior (“worse”) and served as the superlative of malus (“bad”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Corominas treats it among the learned words of the article peor, whose popular words continue the comparative.^[2] Other Romance forms are Italian pessimo and Old Occitan pesme.^[6][7]

Gómez de Silva reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ped-samo- (“worst”), formed on *ped- (“to stumble”) with a superlative suffix, and Segura Munguía compares the adverb pessum (“to the bottom, to ruin”).^[8][7] De Vaan derives that adverb from a noun meaning “the falling”, probably *ped-tu-, in view of the comparative from *ped-iōs.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Fernández de Villegas in 1515; the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes Manero, of the mid-17th century, and Covarrubias left the word out in 1611.^[2] The earliest record from the Americas is from Guatemala in 1558, con su pésima y mala intención “with his very bad and evil intent”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's 1817 edition marked it as a superlative adjective, “very bad, or the worst there can be”, and Salvá in 1846 as the irregular superlative of malo.^[11][12] The 1899 edition gave the etymology and the definition still used, “extremely bad, that cannot be worse”.^[13][5] Echegaray also recorded the exclamation ¡Pésimo! “very badly!”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1515 – Fernández de Villegas, Corominas's first record.^[2][7]
• 1558 – the first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[10]
• c. 1650 – Manero, quoted in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[2]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as a superlative, “very bad”.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin pessimus.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extremely bad, the worst possible; dreadful, abysmal: El servicio del hotel fue pésimo.^[5][15][1]

Related words

• pesimismo
• pesimista
• óptimo
• peor
• malo
• Latin pessimus

Usage notes

Grammars treat it as the learned superlative of malo, beside the everyday malísimo; the form pesimísimo is proscribed.^[1][15][12] Its opposite is óptimo.^[16][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 481
3. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. pésimo
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c 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. pésimo
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6440
7. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 561
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. pésimo
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. pésimo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 668
12. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 836
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 772
14. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 798
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pésimo
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pésimo