prisionero

Forms

prisionero m (plural prisioneros, feminine prisionera, feminine plural prisioneras)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote presonero;^[2][3] Autoridades spells the word prissionero.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish prisión + -ero.^[4][1][5] The base noun prisión comes, by a semi-learned route, from Latin prehensiō (“a seizing”), the action noun of prehendō (“to seize”), which is also the source of prender.^[6][7][8]

Echegaray and Barcia compared French prisonnier, Italian prigioniere and Catalan presoner, formed in the same way from the word for “prison”.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's earliest record is the form presonero in a document of 1237 in the diplomatic collection of Teobaldo I.^[2] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has prisionero from 1391, in 31 texts.^[11] Corominas dated the word only from about 1570 (Mármol, quoted in Autoridades).^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In the Americas the word appears from 1549, in Nueva Granada, of an Indian held prisoner, and in 1575 in Chile of men taken in fighting.^[12] Percyvall glossed it “a prisoner” in 1591.^[13] Autoridades added the figurative use for someone held captive by an affection or passion, and the phrase prisionero de guerra for one who surrenders to the victor under a capitulation.^[3] The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century defined the word as a soldier taken from the enemy in war.^[14][15] The present dictionary widens it to any person who falls into the enemy's hands in a campaign, and to one held captive for reasons that are not a crime.^[4][16]

As a technical word it names a small screw: a headless screw fixing pulleys and wheels to their shafts in Puerto Rico, and in Leonese the screws that hold the blade of a scythe to its handle.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1237 – the form presonero in a document of Teobaldo I.^[2]
• 1391 – the first of 31 texts with prisionero in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[11]
• 1549 – first record in the Americas, in Nueva Granada.^[12]
• c. 1570 – Mármol's use, Corominas's first record.^[6]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a prisoner”.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the figurative sense and prisionero de guerra.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology “De prisión”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prisoner: a soldier or other person who falls into the enemy's hands in a war or campaign.^[4][19]
2. A person held captive, usually for reasons that are not a crime, as by kidnappers: Los secuestradores liberaron a los prisioneros al amanecer.^[4][16][19]
3. (figurative) A person dominated by a feeling or passion: Vivía prisionero de sus celos.^[4][16]
4. (Puerto Rico, mechanics) A small headless screw that fixes pulleys and wheels to their shafts.^[17]

Related words

• prisión
• prender
• preso
• aprisionar
• Latin prehensio
• French prisonnier

Usage notes

Prisionero de guerra is the person who surrenders to the victor after a capitulation, a phrase recorded since Autoridades.^[4][3] Moliner also uses the word as an adjective (estaba prisionera).^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 385
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. prisionero
5. ^ 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. 866
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 655
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prender
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 951
10. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 407
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 194
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 704
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 589
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
17. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr
18. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. prisionero
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial