presencia

Forms

presencia f (plural presencias)^[1] Medieval texts spell it presençia, presencia, pressencia, presentia and presenzia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praesentia (“presence”).^[4][5][1][6] The Latin noun is formed from praesēns (“present”), the present participle of praeesse (“to be in front, be at hand”).^[5][7][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese presença, which Nascentes calls semi-learned, Galician presenza, Catalan presència and Italian presenza.^[9][10][1] presente and presentar belong to the same Latin family.^[5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Charters of Oña and other monasteries from 1217 on have in presencia in Latin text, which is not yet a record of the Spanish word.^[3] In Spanish the word appears about 1250, in the Castilian text of the Cortes de León: Enna pressencia del Rey don Alfonso, “in the presence of King Alfonso”.^[3] The Fuero Juzgo (c. 1250–1260) says that the Visigothic laws were made ante la presencia del Rey don Sisnando, and Berceo, in a 14th-century copy, has ante la su presencia.^[3] Corominas's date is 1444.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The phrase en presencia de “before, in front of” was the usual use in notarial documents from the 13th century, and it is the first record in the Americas: Santa Marta, 1528.^[3][12] Covarrubias gives the sense “personal attendance” and notes that the word sometimes means a fine figure and authority.^[13] Autoridades has both senses and a third in philosophy, the coexistence of a body with a place.^[14] The Academy's 1817 edition adds presencia de ánimo “presence of mind” and presencia de Dios, and its 1843 edition the sense “show, pomp”.^[15][16]

The Chilean purist Román objected to en presencia de with things (en presencia de estos datos) because the Academy's definition required a person, but he did not condemn it, as he found it in Nieremberg and Moratín.^[17] Today the word is used of things as well as people: the DLE has a separate sense for a thing that is in a place.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – pressencia in the Castilian text of the Cortes de León.^[3]
• c. 1250–1260 – the Fuero Juzgo has ante la presencia del Rey.^[3]
• 1444 – Corominas's date for the word.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin praesentia.^[8]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias notes the sense “good figure and authority”.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades calls it a Latin word and gives the sense “figure and bearing of the body”.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records presencia de ánimo and presencia de Dios.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology from Latin praesentia.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. presence: the fact of a person being in front of others or in the same place as them: Su presencia en la reunión sorprendió a todos.^[4][1]
2. The fact of a thing being in front of others or in the same place; existence in a place.^[4]
3. appearance, figure and bearing: un hombre de buena presencia.^[4][1][19]
4. Show, pomp.^[4]
5. The memory of an image or idea, or its representation in the mind.^[4]

Word family

• presenciar
• presencial

Related words

• presente
• presentar
• ausencia
• Latin praesentia

Usage notes

Presencia de ánimo is calm and composure in good and bad fortune, and presencia de Dios the awareness of being before God.^[4] En presencia de means “in front of, before”.^[8][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. presencia
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. presencia
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. presencia
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ser
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. presencia
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. praesentia
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. presencia
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. presença
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. presència
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. presencia
12. ^ 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. presencia
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1228
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 363
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 700
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 585
17. ^ 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. 437
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 861
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. presencia