preciso

Forms

preciso (feminine precisa, masculine plural precisos, feminine plural precisas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praecīsus (“cut off; abrupt; shortened”), the past participle of praecīdō (“to cut off in front, shorten”), formed from prae- (“in front”) and caedō (“to cut”).^[2][3][4][5] Corominas discusses it under decidir, another learned word of the same Latin family.^[6] The same Latin word gave Portuguese preciso, Catalan precís, French précis and Italian preciso.^[1][7][8]

For the Portuguese word, Nascentes explains the sense “necessary” as going from “cut off” to “lacking”, then to “needed”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1574.^[2] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has an occurrence in a text of 1515.^[10] Earlier than Corominas's date, records from the Americas already show both main senses: 5 años de destierro precisos “five years of mandatory exile” in Yucatán (1556), and fue preciso despoblar la cibdad de Cañete “it was necessary to abandon the city of Cañete” in Chile (1569).^[11]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades put “necessary” first, then “punctual, certain, fixed”, and “distinct, clear”.^[12] Terreros (1786–1793) gave French précis and Italian preciso as its equivalents in the sense “fixed, exact”.^[13] By 1817 the Academy also recorded the literal sense “separated, cut off” and the logical sense “abstracted by the mind”, and in 1884 it added “concise and exact” of language and style, with the etymology from Latin.^[14][15] Moliner marks the literal sense obsolete.^[16]

The DLE now puts the senses of exactness first (clear outlines, a skilled marksman, a measuring instrument with little error) and the sense “necessary” after them.^[4] In El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras it means “in a hurry”.^[17][4] Regional nouns include a leather pouch for travellers in Honduras and a bag for tobacco and lighting gear in Jaén.^[18][19] The verb precisar is recorded from the middle of the 17th century.^[2]

Timeline

• 1556 – destierro precisos “mandatory exile” in Yucatán.^[11]
• 1569 – fue preciso “it was necessary” in Chile.^[11]
• 1574 – Corominas's first record.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as “necessary”, then “fixed, exact”.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the senses “separated” and, in logic, “abstracted”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “concise and exact” of style and the Latin etymology.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Clearly perceptible, sharp: un perfil preciso.^[4]
2. Of a person, acting with skill and accuracy.^[4]
3. Of a measuring instrument, precise: measuring with very small error.^[4][1]
4. Done with accuracy: un golpe preciso.^[4]
5. Of a person or what he says, concise and rigorous.^[4]
6. Known exactly, without vagueness: No recuerdo la fecha precisa.^[4][1]
7. necessary, indispensable: Es preciso salir antes de las ocho.^[4][1]
8. (philosophy) Abstracted or separated by the mind.^[4]
9. (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) In a hurry.^[4][17]

Word family

• precisión
• precisar
• precisamente
• impreciso

Related words

• decidir
• Latin praecīsus

Usage notes

Es preciso with an infinitive or a clause with que means “it is necessary”.^[20] In Nicaragua the feminine noun precisa means “hurry”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preciso
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 564
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. preciso
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. praecīsus
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 431
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2680
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. precís
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. preciso
10. ^ 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. preciso
11. ^ a b c 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. preciso
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 349
13. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 196
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 696
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. 857
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preciso
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. preciso
18. ^ Membreño, Alberto (1897), Hondureñismos: vocabulario de los provincialismos de Honduras, 2nd ed., Tegucigalpa: Tipografía Nacional, p. 142
19. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 505
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. preciso