privado

Forms

privado (feminine privada, masculine plural privados, feminine plural privadas, superlative privadísimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prīvātus (“set apart; private”), the past participle of prīvō (“to deprive, set apart”), which Spanish continues as privar.^[2][1][3][4] Corominas sees no decisive reason to regard the verb as a learned word in Spanish, as the REW does.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese privado, Galician privado, Catalan privat, Occitan privat, French privé and Italian privato.^[5][1] The noun “latrine”, Spanish privada, has parallels in Italian, Old French, Occitan, Catalan and Portuguese, properly “secret, separate room”.^[5]

The Latin verb comes from prīvus (“one's own, individual”), which de Vaan derives from the stem of prior (“former”), with a shift in meaning from “being in front” to “being separate”; he reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *prei-wo-.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first hit of the CDH is the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the first quarter of the 13th century), where a captive king is led away to Babylon with todos sos priuados “all his favourites”.^[7] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) Daniel fue privado del rey “became the king's favourite”.^[7] Corominas dates the word 1220–1250 and finds both senses, “set apart, particular” and “favourite, confidant”, common from Berceo on: en casa del obispo non era tan privado / como solié seer con el otro passado “in the bishop's house he was not as close as he had been with the former one”.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has private penance, a camara priuada, masses said privately without singing, and the favourite of a ruler.^[9] The feminine noun privada “latrine” is recorded from the second half of the 13th century.^[8][3] The noun “royal favourite” dominates the classical language: Percyvall glosses it as a prince's minion, and the Diccionario de Autoridades equates it with valido.^[10][11] Salvá and the Academy in 1869 record an obsolete sense “prime minister”, and Domínguez names Álvaro de Luna as the type.^[12][13][14]

Baralt in 1855 defended the phrase en privado, then missing from the dictionaries but current.^[15] The sense “not owned by the state” appears in the Academy's 22nd edition.^[16] Regional senses are many: “overjoyed” in the Canaries (estar privado), “fast asleep” in Central America, “out of breath after a blow” in the Dominican Republic, “mad” in Salamanca, and “a private office” in Mexico and other countries.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22]}

Timeline

• c. 1194–1211 – todos sos priuados in the Liber Regum.^[7]
• c. 1200 – privado del rey in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[7]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date;^[8][3] Berceo uses both senses.^[8][3]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Libro conplido mentions la camara priuada.^[9]
• second half of the 13th century – first record of privada “latrine”.^[8]
• 1517 – the first record from the Americas: the King's privados, in Santo Domingo.^[23]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a familiar, a friend, a prince's minion”.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as someone removed from office.^[24]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “private” and “favourite”.^[11]
• 1855 – Baralt defends en privado.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy defines the noun as “one who enjoys privanza”.^[25]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Done before few people, in a family or informal way, without ceremony: Hicieron una cena privada para la familia.^[2][22]
2. private, personal: belonging to each individual: No le gusta que pregunten por sus asuntos privados.^[2][1]
3. Owned by private individuals rather than by the state: un hospital privado.^[2][26]
4. deprived (of something), lacking it: privado de libertad.^[1][26]
5. (Canary Islands) Overjoyed: estar privado.^[2][17][1]
6. (Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, colloquial) Fast asleep.^[19][1]

Noun

1. (historical) A royal favourite: a man who enjoyed a sovereign's confidence and influenced his decisions; a valido.^[2][26]
2. (Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile) A private office or room inside a larger office or establishment.^[19][22]
3. (feminine privada) A latrine; also a large heap of excrement dropped in the street.^[2]

Word family

• privadamente

Related words

• privar
• privanza
• privativo
• Latin prīvātus

Usage notes

Old Spanish also had an adverb privado “quickly, at once”, very common from the Cid to the 14th century, with a variant priado.^[3][27] The DRAE of 2001 derived it from Celtic *brigos “vigour”, following Meyer-Lübke's idea of a loan from Occitan, but Corominas prefers to derive it from privatus through “particularly” and “easily”.^[16][3] The phrase en privado means “in private”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. privado
3. ^ 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, 655
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 570
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. privatus
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. privado
8. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. privar
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. privado
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 386
12. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 882
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 633
14. ^ 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, 1425
15. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 556
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. privado
17. ^ a b Millares Cubas, Luis; Millares Cubas, Agustín (1922), Cómo hablan los canarios: refundición del Léxico de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, p. 127
18. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. privado
19. ^ 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. privado
20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. privado
21. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 587
22. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. privado
23. ^ 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. privado
24. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1230
25. ^ 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
26. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. privado
27. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 344