paisaje

Forms

paisaje m (plural paisajes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French paysage, formed in French from pays (“rural territory; country”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary describes it as país with the suffix -aje, modelled on the French word.^[1] The French noun is derived with the suffix -age and is first recorded in 1549, as a term of painting.^[6] Spanish had taken its word for “country” from the same French noun, first as a military and painters' word.^[2] The French noun goes back to Latin pagensis (“belonging to a rural district”), from pagus (“district”).^[3][7]

The same French word is Portuguese paisagem, recorded from 1567, Catalan paisatge and Italian paesaggio.^[8][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from 1708, in Palomino, with the spelling paisage of Autoridades.^[2][10] The CDH has earlier records: the inventories of Philip II's possessions, about 1600, describe a painting of Bacchus con paysaje “with a landscape”, and Lope de Vega uses the plural in 1602–04.^[11] The first sense is the painted landscape, the background of a picture.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades and the Academy's dictionaries to 1843 defined it as “a piece of country in painting”.^[10][12] Domínguez in 1846 added the stretch of country that the eye takes in, and the Academy in 1869 the land looked at with an artist's eye.^[13][14] The DLE now puts the view first, then a natural space admired for its beauty, then the painting or drawing, and also uses the word for the features of a field: paisaje político.^[4] Moliner adds the leaf of a fan, also called país.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1600 – the inventories of Philip II's possessions describe a painting con paysaje.^[11]
• 1602–1604 – Lope de Vega's La hermosura de Angélica has bárbaros paisajes.^[11]
• 1690 – Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, in Mexico, writes a stage direction Paisaje de bosque y prado.^[11]
• 1708 – Palomino's use, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1846 – Domínguez defines it as the land that the eye takes in.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the land considered artistically.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A landscape, the part of a territory that can be seen from a given place: Desde la torre se veía todo el paisaje.^[4][1]
2. A natural space admired for its beauty, scenery.^[4]
3. (art) A painting or drawing of a landscape.^[4][5]
4. The set of features of a given sphere: el paisaje político.^[4]

Word family

• paisajismo
• paisajista

Related words

• país
• paisano
• apaisado
• French paysage

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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, 338
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pago
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. paisaje
5. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paisaje
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ 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. país
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. paisagem
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. paisatge
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 80
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. paisaje
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 521
13. ^ 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, 1312
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 562