pariente

Forms

pariente m or f by sense (plural parientes, feminine pariente or parienta, feminine plural parientes or parientas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pariente, inherited from Latin parēns (“parent”).^[1][2][3] Its plural meant “father and mother”, and in Late Latin it came to mean “relatives”, the only sense kept in Ibero-Romance and Italian.^[4][3][5] Old Spanish still used the plural for “parents” in Berceo and Juan Ruiz.^[4]

The same word is Portuguese parente, Galician parente, Catalan parent, French parent, Italian parente and Romanian părinte (“father; priest”).^[6][7] Meyer-Lübke thought the sense “parents” in the Romance languages was a Latinism, since medieval texts said “father and mother”.^[7]

The Latin noun is apparently an old aorist participle of pariō (“to give birth, beget”), beside the regular present participle pariēns.^[8][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *par-(e)nt- and the root Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“to produce, beget”), and de Vaan also suggests that the noun preserves the old root aorist.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) already uses parientes for the members of a family, mostly where they act together to support a kinsman.^[10][4][2] The older sense “father and mother” is found in Berceo, the Libro de Apolonio and Juan Ruiz.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that by the end of the 14th century the sense “parents” had been forgotten: both manuscripts of the Libro de buen amor turn a line on what parents cannot pass on to their son into a singular pariente.^[4] Covarrubias (1611) defined the word as a kinsman of the same lineage and quoted the proverbs más cerca están mis dientes que mis parientes and no hay pariente pobre.^[11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) added the figurative sense “similar, closely alike” and, in familiar and courtly style, husband and wife.^[12] By 1843 the Academy also recorded pariente as the title the kings of Spain gave in writing to the titled nobility of Castile.^[13] In colloquial Spanish of Spain la parienta is used, often jokingly, for one's wife.^[14][15] In Cuba pariente is a friendly form of address to a stranger.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses parientes for relatives.^[10][2]
• 13th century – Berceo still uses parientes for “father and mother”.^[4]
• 1223 – the earliest text in the Old Spanish Textual Archive to have the word.^[17]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios use it for members of one's family.^[18]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders it with Latin cognatio and consanguinitas.^[19]
• 1534 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias quotes más cerca están mis dientes que mis parientes.^[11]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative sense and husband or wife.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, from Latin parens.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A relative, a member of one's family by blood or marriage: Tiene parientes en Galicia.^[3][1]
2. Of an animal or plant: one belonging to the same taxon as another: El lobo es pariente del perro.^[3][14]
3. Of a thing: one related to or resembling another.^[3][12]
4. (colloquial) One's husband or wife (in the feminine usually la parienta).^[3][15]
5. (historical) The title the king of Spain gave in writing to the titled nobles of Castile who were not grandees.^[3]
6. (obsolete, in the plural) Parents, father and mother.^[3][1]

Word family

• emparentar
• parentesco

Related words

• parental
• parentela
• parir
• Latin parēns
• Portuguese parente

Usage notes

The feminine is either pariente or parienta (una pariente suya, mi parienta).^[14][1] Pariente pobre is said of the least favoured person or thing in a group, and pariente mayor of the head of the senior line of a lineage.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parir
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. pariente
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 403
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4802
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6230
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 378
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1195
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 130
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 533
14. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pariente
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pariente
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pariente
17. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
18. ^ 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. pariente
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 393
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. pariente
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 791