propiedad

Forms

propiedad f (plural propiedades)^[1] Old Spanish wrote propiedat, propriedat, propiadat and propiedad.^[2][3] The form with the second ⟨r⟩, propriedad, was still used by Nebrija and Alonso de Palencia.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish propriedad, borrowed from Latin proprietās (“peculiar quality; ownership”), from proprius (“one's own”) with the suffix -tās.^[5][1][6][7] Corominas treats it in his article on propio, where he explains that the second /r/ of the Latin word was lost by dissimilation; this also happened to some extent in Portuguese, French and Italian, but became general only in Castilian and Catalan.^[3]

The Latin noun first meant the special character of a thing, and in imperial times the right of possession and the thing possessed.^[8][7] In Medieval Latin it was an estate held in full ownership.^[9] The same word is Portuguese propriedade, Galician propiedade, Catalan propietat, French propriété and Italian proprietà;^[10][11][8] Nascentes calls the Portuguese form semi-learned.^[10][11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), where a passage on the rainbow reads e este arco es llamado en latin propiedat yris “and this arch is properly called iris in Latin”.^[12] Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246, in an early 14th-century copy) uses proprïedad for the true nature of the consecrated bread and wine, which their taste does not reveal.^[12] The Fueros de Aragón (1247) already have the legal sense, the propriedat de la heredat “ownership of the estate”.^[12] Corominas gives the Libro de Alexandre, and the BDELC dates the word about 1250.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the propriedat que an las planetas sobre las piedras “the power the planets have over stones”, and his General estoria of propriedad and lordship over things.^[14] Legal documents from Puebla in 1549 renounce la tenençia posesyón propiedad e señorío of land.^[15] In the Quijote the word also means appropriateness: speech that suits the speaker is spoken con mucha propiedad.^[16]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary had “dominion”, “real estate” and “peculiar quality”; in 1843 it added the exact sense of a word in grammar, a natural inclination, a perfect likeness in painting or music, the fault against religious poverty of treating a thing as one's own, ownership as opposed to usufruct, and the three hexachords of Guido of Arezzo's musical system.^[17][18] Modern law distinguishes nuda propiedad, ownership without the usufruct, and propiedad horizontal, the ownership of flats in a shared building.^[5] Hablar con propiedad is “to speak precisely and correctly”.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1215–1220 – the DEMel cites the word from the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, a text known from a 14th-century copy.^[2][20]
• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo has propiedat.^[12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón use propriedat for ownership.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses propriedat for the powers of planets and stones.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary has propriedad, Latin proprietas.^[4][21]
• 1549 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla.^[15]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the grammatical, legal and musical senses.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin proprietas.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. ownership: the right to possess something and dispose of it within the law.^[5][1]
2. property: a thing owned, especially land or a building: Tiene varias propiedades en la costa.^[5][1]
3. A property or essential attribute of someone or something: las propiedades curativas de una planta.^[5][19]
4. A perfect likeness or imitation.^[5]
5. (religion) The fault against religious poverty of a monk or nun who uses a thing as their own.^[5]
6. (philosophy) A necessary and inseparable accident.^[5]
7. (grammar) The exact, peculiar meaning of words or phrases; propriety of language.^[5][19]
8. (music) Each of the three kinds of hexachord used in plainchant.^[5]

Related words

• propietario
• propio
• apropiar
• Latin proprietās
• French propriété

Usage notes

Set phrases include nuda propiedad “bare ownership”, propiedad horizontal “ownership of flats in a building”, propiedad intelectual “intellectual property” and en propiedad, said of a post held permanently.^[5][1][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. propiedad
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 662
4. ^ 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. propiedad
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. propiedad
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 575
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. propriedade
11. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 609
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. propiedad
13. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. propio
14. ^ 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. propiedad
15. ^ 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, p. s.v. propiedad
16. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. s.v. propiedad
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 708
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 593
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. propiedad
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. grado
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 401
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 871
23. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 622