preste

Forms

preste m (plural prestes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish preste, a dissimilated form of prestre, which is borrowed from Old French prestre (“priest”).^[2][3][4][1] The French word comes from the nominative Late Latin presbyter (“elder; priest”), from Ancient Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbúteros, “older”), the comparative of πρέσβυς (présbus, “old, elder”).^[2][3][5] Wiktionary considers the Christian sense of the Greek word a likely semantic loan from Aramaic.^[1]

Its doublet presbítero was taken directly from Latin and is recorded from 1490; it has always been a learned word.^[2][3] arcipreste came the same way, from arciprestre.^[2]

Other Romance continuations of the Latin word include French prêtre, Italian prete, Romanian preot and Catalan prevere,^[6] and the Basque bereter was borrowed from it.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates preste to Berceo, who also has prestre.^[2][3] In Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246, in an early-14th-century copy) the priests treat the loaves as holy: los prestes estos panes por sanctos los catavan.^[8] In the Vida de San Millán (c. 1230) the saint is advised to be ordained priest: qe te quieras por Dios en preste ordenar.^[8] A testament dated by the CDH between c. 1218 and 1300 lists two witnesses as preste.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages it was the usual word for a priest, from Berceo to the Partidas,^[2] which explain that preste or sacerdote means missacantano, one who consecrates the body of Christ, and that preste “in the language of the Greeks” means “old”.^[9][10] The DEMel lists 13th-century forms such as prestre, preostre and priestres.^[11] Nebrija glossed Latin praesbyter as el sacerdote o preste.^[12]

By 1611 Covarrubias used the word mainly for the priest who says the conventual Mass with a deacon and a subdeacon,^[13] and the Autoridades defined it as the celebrant of a sung Mass, or the cleric who presides over a service in a choir cope, adding that in old times all priests were so called.^[10] The Academy has marked the general sense “priest” as obsolete since 1817.^[14] Corominas notes that the word now lives only as a technical term of the Church.^[2] In Bolivia the preste is the person who undertakes to celebrate a religious feast and pays for it.^[15][4][16]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses preste and prestre.^[2][3]
• 1256–1300 – the Partidas explain the word.^[9]
• 1490 – first record of the learned doublet presbítero.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses praesbyter as sacerdote o preste.^[12]
• 1546 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of the priest at a procession.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias limits it to the celebrant of the conventual Mass.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy marks the sense “priest” as obsolete.^[14]
• 1946 – Malaret records the Bolivian sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The priest who presides at the celebration of Mass or of another liturgical act; formerly the celebrant of a sung Mass assisted by a deacon and a subdeacon.^[4][18][10]
2. (obsolete) A priest, presbítero.^[4][1]
3. (Bolivia, Ecuador) The person, man or woman, who pays the costs of certain religious festivals.^[4][19][16]

Related words

• presbítero
• arcipreste
• Latin presbyter
• French prêtre

Usage notes

Preste Juan “Prester John” is the legendary priest-king, identified with the emperor of Abyssinia.^[4][18] Covarrubias held that the name was a corruption of Precioso Juan, following Oleastro, while the Autoridades explained Juan as a word meaning “king” in the language of the Abyssinians.^[13][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 643
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. presbítero
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. preste
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. prêtre
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6740
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5214
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. preste
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 368
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. preste
12. ^ a b 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. preste
13. ^ a b c 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 (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 701
15. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 682
16. ^ 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. preste
17. ^ 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. preste
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preste
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. preste