princesa

Forms

princesa f (plural princesas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French princesse, the feminine of prince (“prince”) made with the suffix -esse.^[2][3][1][4] Corominas notes that Nebrija already spelt it with a single ⟨s⟩, as Catalan and Portuguese still do.^[5] The French suffix goes back to -issa.^[6]

The French masculine goes back to Latin princeps (“first in rank; chief, prince”), from which Spanish took príncipe.^[3][7] The Latin word is formed from prīmus (“first”) and capiō (“to take”), and so named the one who takes the first place.^[8][9][7]

Catalan princesa is likewise taken from French.^[10] Nascentes says that Portuguese princesa came through Spanish, beside an older princessa, its ending reshaped after duquesa and marquesa.^[11] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 explained the word instead as a contraction of principesa.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DICCA-XV reports a first date of 1377–1393 from the CORDE and finds the word in its own 15th-century corpus from 1424.^[4] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has it from 1393.^[14] Corominas's first record is Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary of about 1495, which renders it with Latin princeps.^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined the word as the wife of a prince or a woman who holds a principality in her own right, and, in Spain, the king's daughter who is next in succession; it quoted Salazar de Mendoza on Isabel, daughter of John II, being sworn Princesa at the inn of the Toros de Guisando.^[15] The Academy kept these senses through the 19th century,^[16][17] and Domínguez added the title princesa de Asturias for the heir to the throne and the use of the word as a regiment's name.^[18] Terreros also recorded princesa as the name of a silk cloth.^[19]

The current dictionary lists many more titles: a king's daughter who is not the heir in some monarchies, any member of a royal family, a sovereign, the consort of a prince, and a rank of nobility above duchess in some countries; figuratively it names a woman who excels among others.^[3] In Chile it is a girl in the court of honour of the festival queen,^[20] in Colombia a plant, the Madagascar periwinkle,^[21] and on El Hierro a praying mantis.^[22] Colloquially a man may call his girlfriend princesa.^[23] The word passed into printzesa, prinsesa and other languages.^[1]

Timeline

• 1377–1393 – first date the CORDE gives, as reported by DICCA-XV.^[4]
• 1393 – first record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[14]
• 1424 – first record in the DICCA-XV corpus of 15th-century texts.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin princeps;^[24][5][2] Corominas's first record.^[24][5][2]
• 1599 – in Peru a chronicle equates Quechua ñusta with Spanish presesas.^[25]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the princess of Spain as the king's daughter next in succession.^[15]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records it as the name of a silk cloth.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy explains it as a contraction of principesa.^[12]
• 2001 – the Academy's 22nd edition derives it from French princesse.^[26]

Meanings

Noun

1. princess: the daughter of a king who is heir to the crown: La princesa juró la Constitución.^[3][1]
2. In some monarchies, a daughter of the king who is not the heir.^[3]
3. A female member of a royal or imperial family.^[3]
4. A female sovereign, especially of a principality (principado).^[3][26]
5. The wife or consort of a prince.^[3][27]
6. A title of nobility granted by the king as an exceptional honour; in some countries, a rank above duquesa “duchess”.^[3]
7. (figurative) A woman who stands out among others of her kind.^[3]
8. (Chile) A girl who forms part of the queen's court of honour in a procession or festival.^[20]
9. (colloquial) A term of endearment a man uses for his girlfriend.^[23]

Related words

• príncipe
• principal
• French princesse
• Latin princeps

Usage notes

Princesa de Asturias is the title of the heiress to the Spanish throne.^[18][28]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. príncipe
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. príncipe
4. ^ a b c d e 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. princesa
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 648
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 570
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. prince
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. princesa
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. princesa
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. 864
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 811
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 380
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 703
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 632
18. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1423
19. ^ a b 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, 212
20. ^ 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. princesa
21. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 525
22. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. princesa
23. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
24. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 401
25. ^ 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. precesa
26. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. princesa
27. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. princesa
28. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1371