paciente

Forms

paciente m or f (masculine and feminine plural pacientes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin patiens (“enduring, patient”), the present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”), a learned word.^[2][1][3][4] The DCECH lists it among the learned words in its article on padecer, the popular verb formed on Old Spanish padir, which continues the same Latin verb.^[3][5] The medical use goes back to Late Latin, where the participle translated a Greek participle meaning “the one who suffers”;^[6][7] Medieval Latin used it for a sick person.^[6][7] French patient and English patient come from the same Latin word.^[8]

De Vaan reports the suggestion that the Latin verb belongs with Ancient Greek πῆμα (pêma, “suffering”), but finds its formation unclear, and considers as an alternative a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to fly, fall”), with an original sense “to befall”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adverb pacient mientre “patiently” already appears in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247.^[10] The adjective is in the Fuero Juzgo (c. 1250–1260): a counsellor deue seer paciente mucho a los menores “must be very patient with the humble”.^[10] The DEMel has a record in the Flores de filosofía from before 1250, and the DTME dates the word to 1250.^[11][6] The DCECH's first record, in Santillana, is about two centuries later.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) Moses is muy pacient with the grumbling people.^[13] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 already uses the noun for a sufferer, el paciente destas camaras “the sufferer of this flux”, glossing Latin dysentericus.^[12] Chroniclers in New Granada in 1539 used pacientes for the passive partners in sodomy.^[14]

Autoridades has three senses: one who bears troubles without disturbance of mind, one who suffers a pain or illness, and, figuratively, a husband who tolerates his wife's infidelity.^[15][16] Terreros adds the physics sense, the object on which an agent acts.^[17] The Academy's 1884 edition made the sick person a separate common-gender noun and added a grammar sense.^[18] The DLE now gives the person under medical care or being examined, and the grammatical patient, the element that receives the action of the verb.^[2]

Timeline

• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón have the adverb pacient mientre.^[10]
• before 1250 – paciente in the Flores de filosofía.^[11]
• c. 1250–1260 – the Fuero Juzgo uses the adjective.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria has pacient.^[13]
• c. 1440 – the DCECH's first record, in Santillana.^[3][19]
• 1492 – Nebrija uses the noun for a sufferer of an illness.^[12]
• 1539 – the first records from the Americas, in New Granada.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the senses “sufferer of an illness” and “complaisant husband”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary has the noun “sick person” and a grammar sense.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Patient: having paciencia: Hay que ser paciente con los aprendices.^[2][1]
2. Showing or implying patience.^[2][5]
3. (philosophy) Of a subject: receiving or undergoing the action of an agent; also as a noun.^[2]
4. (grammar) sujeto paciente: the subject of a passive sentence.^[2][20]

Noun

1. A person who suffers physically, especially one under medical care; a patient.^[2][1]
2. A person who is being or will be examined by a doctor.^[2]
3. (grammar) The element that receives the action of the verb.^[2]
4. (dated) A husband who tolerates his wife's infidelity.^[20][15]

Word family

• pacientemente

Related words

• paciencia
• impaciente
• padecer
• pasivo
• Latin patiens

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. paciente
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 334
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 516
5. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. paciente
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. paciente
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 541
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 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. paciente
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. paciente
12. ^ a b c 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. paciente
13. ^ 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. paciente
14. ^ 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. paciente
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 70
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5
17. ^ 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. 3, 2
18. ^ 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. 771
19. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 548
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paciente