próspero

Forms

próspero (feminine próspera, masculine plural prósperos, feminine plural prósperas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin prosperus (“favourable, successful, fortunate”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is found from Naevius on.^[5]

De Vaan reconstructs *pro-sparo- and derives it either from prō with Proto-Indo-European *sph₁-ro- (“thriving”), or as an adjective derived from a compound verb meaning “to thrive”.^[5] The root *speh₁- (“to succeed, thrive”) is also that of spēs (“hope”) and of Old English spōwan (“to prosper”).^[5][1] The OLD calls the origin doubtful and mentions an ancient derivation from an adverb, perhaps a popular etymology.^[6] Bénaben also calls the origin uncertain and mentions a formation from the preposition meaning “for” and spērō (“to hope”).^[7] Gómez de Silva relates it to esperar.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Gran Conquista de Ultramar, followed by Santillana, Juan de Mena and Alonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario, which explains Latin faustus as cosa próspera.^[2] The BDELC dates it 1444.^[3] The DEMel and the HSMS find it earlier, in the Aragonese translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia, from the second half of the 14th century.^[9][10] The sense there was “favourable, fortunate”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds the word general in the written language and not foreign to speech;^[11] Autoridades has examples from the 16th century on.^[2] In the Americas it described a voyage with favourable winds as early as 1517 in Santo Domingo, and in 1541 a person's good fortune in Peru.^[12] Cervantes's Quijote uses it of fortune, wind and voyages.^[11]

The Academy defined it as “happy, fortunate” until 1869.^[13][14] From 1884 it defined it as “favourable, propitious”, with viento próspero and la próspera y la adversa fortuna as examples.^[13][14][15] The sense “economically successful, thriving”, of a country or a business, is a later addition to the definitions: the DLE has it, the 2001 edition did not.^[4][16][17]

Timeline

• 1376–1400 – Heredia's Aragonese translations use próspero.^[10][9]
• 1444 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[3]
• 1517 – first record from the Americas, of a voyage from Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the definition “favourable, propitious”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. favourable, propitious, fortunate: Zarparon con tiempo próspero.^[4][17]
2. prosperous, thriving, economically successful, of a person or thing: una comarca próspera.^[4][1][17]

Word family

• prosperidad
• prosperar

Related words

• esperar
• Latin prosperus
• Latin spēs

Usage notes

Próspero año nuevo is the usual New Year's wish.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 663
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. próspero
4. ^ a b c d 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. próspero
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. prosperus
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prosperus
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
9. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. prospero
10. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. prospero
11. ^ 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. 914
12. ^ 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. próspero
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 594
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 638
15. ^ 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. 873
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. próspero
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. próspero