posesivo

Forms

posesivo (feminine posesiva, masculine plural posesivos, feminine plural posesivas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin possessīvus (“indicating possession”), a learned word recorded from 1495.^[2][3][4] The Latin adjective is formed from possideō (“to have, possess”) with the suffix -īvus, and Quintilian already used it as a grammatical term.^[5][1][6] The Latin verb is also the source of Spanish poseer, itself derived from sedeō (“to sit”).^[3]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Italian possessivo, French possessif and English possessive.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and Segura Munguía date the word to 1495.^[3][4] In the Quijote (1605) Cervantes speaks of an acto possessiuo, an act of possession, in the sense “relating to possession”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades treated possessivo only as a term of grammar, for the pronouns that denote ownership (mío, tuyo, suyo) and for adjectives formed from nouns such as antoniano “of Antonio”; the Academy kept this definition in 1817 and 1843.^[8][9][10] Domínguez added the general sense “expressing possession” in 1846, and the Academy's 1884 edition defined it as “that denotes possession”, also used as a noun in grammar.^[11][12] The psychological sense, of a person who dominates and absorbs those close to them, is in the 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary and in Moliner.^[13][14] Spanish American records of it go back at least to 1966 in Cuba and 1980 in Mexico.^[15]

Timeline

• 1495 – first record, according to Corominas.^[3]
• 1605 – Cervantes writes of an acto possessiuo in the Quijote.^[7]
• 1608 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a term of grammar.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. possessivus”.^[12]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary has the sense “domineering in relationships”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to posesión.^[2][14]
2. possessive: domineering and absorbing in relations with other people: Rompió con él porque era demasiado posesivo.^[2][14][1]
3. (grammar) Expressing possession or belonging, or typical of the possessives.^[2]

Noun

1. (grammar) A possessive adjective, determiner or pronoun, such as mi, tu, su or mío, tuyo, suyo.^[2][14]

Related words

• poseer
• posesión
• posesor
• Latin possessīvus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. posesivo
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poseer
4. ^ a b c 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. 600
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 896
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 336
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 692
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 579
11. ^ 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, 1409
12. ^ 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. 853
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. posesivo
14. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. posesivo
15. ^ 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. posesivo