prefectura

Forms

prefectura f (plural prefecturas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praefectūra (“command; office of a prefect”).^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it, undated, beside prefecto, which he dates to 1490.^[4][5]

The Latin noun is formed from praefectus (“prefect”) with the suffix -ūra^[1], and the prefect's title is the past participle of praeficiō (“to put in charge”), a derivative of faciō (“to do, make”).^[5] The same Latin word is Catalan prefectura, French préfecture and Italian prefettura.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the histories translated for Juan Fernández de Heredia: the Old Spanish Textual Archive has it in his Crónica de los conqueridores (1376–1396), and the CDH in his Gran crónica de España (1385), where an emperor gives la prefectura dela çiudat, the prefecture of the city, to his son-in-law Probus.^[8][9] The sense was the office of a Roman prefect.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was still tied to Roman antiquity, as in Juan de Mena's prefectura de África (1445) and a translation of Sallust (1493).^[9] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 used it to gloss Latin satrapia.^[3] Autoridades defined only the office of a prefect, and Terreros added the cathedral office of the prefectura de coro.^[10][11] The 1884 edition added the territory a prefect governs, and the DLE also has his office or headquarters, a sense Román had found missing from the Academy's dictionary.^[12][2][13] In the Americas the word names the office of the political head of a department in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (recorded in Cuzco in 1827) and of the police chief in Chile.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Crónica de los conqueridores.^[8]
• 1385 – Heredia's Gran crónica de España.^[9]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary.^[3]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines it as the office of a prefect.^[10]
• 1827 – the first record from the Americas, in Cuzco.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “territory”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office or dignity of a prefect (prefecto).^[2][1]
2. The territory governed by a prefect; a prefecture.^[2][1]
3. The office or headquarters of a prefect: Fue a la prefectura a pedir un permiso.^[2][16]
4. (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia) The office of the political head of a department, and the body under him.^[14]
5. (Chile) The office, headquarters or district of a police chief.^[14]

Related words

• prefecto
• subprefectura
• Latin praefectūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. prefectura
3. ^ 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. prefectura
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 64
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prefecto
6. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 924
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. prefectura
8. ^ 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. prefectura
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. prefectura
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 353
11. ^ 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, 198
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. 858
13. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 425
14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. prefectura
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. prefectura
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prefectura