penitente

Forms

penitente m (plural penitentes, feminine penitente or penitenta, feminine plural penitentes or penitentas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin paenitēns (“repenting, penitent”), the present participle of paeniteō (“to cause regret; to repent”).^[2][3][4][1] The OLD compares paene (“almost”), and Wiktionary suggests that the verb is related to it and to paenūria (“want, shortage”), with a basic idea of lack or dissatisfaction.^[5][1] In Medieval Latin the noun meant a public penitent.^[6]

Corominas treats it in the article on arrepentirse, which continues the popular form of the same Latin verb; penitencia was taken from Latin earlier, in 1155.^[2][3] Before this word spread, Old Spanish used penitencial in the same sense.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel cites the plural penitentes from a charter of 1329 in the Colección diplomática de Cuéllar.^[7] Corominas found it first in Nebrija (c. 1495), who gives penitencial o penitente for Latin poenitens.^[2][3][8] DICCA-XV reports a record in the CORDE from 1350.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades gave three senses: what shows or includes penance (vida espiritual y penitente), the person who does penance, by choice or as a punishment, and the person who confesses to a priest, with the feminine penitenta for a woman.^[9] In 1843 the Academy added a colloquial sense, a companion in some pleasure or mischief, and the person who walked in Holy Week processions in a tunic as penance; the procession sense was still in the past tense in 1884 and in the present from 1899.^[10][11][12] In the Americas the word appears in Mexico City in 1571, and in Lima in 1576 for the penitents of the Inquisition's scaffold.^[13]

In Chile and Argentina penitentes are blades of snow or ice that lean towards the sun and look like people kneeling in penance; in Puerto Rico a penitente is a wandering spirit that has not gone to heaven.^[14][15] In Mexico and Ecuador it is a euphemism for “fool”.^[14][16]

Timeline

• 1329 – penitentes in a charter of Cuéllar.^[7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario gives penitencial o penitente.^[8][3]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[13]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “penitent”.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives it as an adjective and a noun, with the feminine penitenta.^[9]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the procession sense and a colloquial sense, “companion in mischief”.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin poenitens.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to penance (penitencia).^[4][18]
2. Doing or bearing penance; penitent.^[4][1]

Noun

1. A person who does penance: Varios penitentes subían descalzos hacia la ermita.^[4][19][1]
2. A person who confesses to a priest in the sacrament of penance.^[4][18]
3. A person who walks in a procession wearing a tunic as a sign of penance.^[4][18]
4. (Chile, Argentina) A pinnacle of snow or ice leaning towards the sun.^[14]
5. (Mexico, Ecuador, colloquial) A fool.^[14]

Related words

• impenitente
• penitencia
• arrepentirse
• penitencial
• Latin paeniteō

Usage notes

The feminine is la penitente or la penitenta;^[18][1][9] Moliner notes that penitenta is used only for the noun and is not usual.^[18][1][9] Segura Munguía also records a mining sense, the man who tested for inflammable gas in a mine.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 1, 353
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arrepentirse
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. penitente
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. paeniteō
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. paenitens
7. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. penitente
8. ^ 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. penitente
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 205
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 549
11. ^ 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. 811
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 762
13. ^ 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. penitente
14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. penitente
15. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. penitente
16. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 641
17. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 187
18. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. penitente
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. penitente
20. ^ 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. 523