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prueba

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word prueba

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1219 Fuero de Guadalajara More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin probus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin probus
Latin probō
French prouver
Italian provare
Spanish probar
Spanish prueba
Dutch proberen
Hungarian próbál
From the same root
Latin improbus ← probus
Latin probē ← probus
Latin probitās ← probus
French preuve ← probō
Latin approbō ← probō
Latin comprobō ← probō
Latin proba ← probō
Latin probābilis ← probō
Latin probātiō ← probō
Latin probātor ← probō
Latin probātus ← probō
Latin reprobō ← probō
French éprouver ← prouver
Italian prova ← provare

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpɾweba/, [ˈpɾwe.β̞a][1]

Forms

prueba f (plural pruebas)[1] Old Spanish wrote prueua, prueva, proeua and proua; the earliest form in the DEMel is provas, from a document of 1154 in the Huesca diplomatic collection.[2] Popular and dialect speech in New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Salamanca, Asturias and Judeo-Spanish reduces the present prueba to preba.[3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Spanish probar (“to test, to prove”), whose medieval spelling was provar.[3][4][5] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of the verb, first recorded in 1219.[6] Gómez de Silva instead derives it from Late Latin proba (“proof, confirmation”), itself from probō (“to test, approve”).[7][1]

The same noun is Portuguese prova, Catalan prova, French preuve and Italian prova (older pruova).[4][8][9][10] The stressed short /o/ of the Latin verb became the diphthong /we/ in Spanish, as French has ⟨eu⟩ and Italian ⟨uo⟩ in the same word.[10]

The Latin verb is formed from probus (“good, upright”) with the verbal suffix -ō.[11][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *profwo- (“favourable”) and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *pro-bʰh₂uo-, a compound of *pro- (“forward”) and the root *bʰuH- (“to be”).[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun to 1219, and the DCECH names the Fuero de Guadalajara among its first records, beside Berceo, Don Juan Manuel, Juan Ruiz and Nebrija.[6][3] In the legal texts of the early 13th century it is the evidence a party brings in a lawsuit: the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) speaks of a man “vencido … con prueuas”, defeated by proofs.[13] Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) uses it for “testimony”: „Pruevas avemos muchas en esto e en al” “we have many proofs of this and of other things”.[14][13]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has most of the modern range: the act of proving, an argument or means that shows something to be true, a test or experiment (the Lapidario weighs oil and a stone to learn the stone's power “por prueba”), and the year of probation of a novice in a religious order.[15] Nebrija glossed prueva with Latin probatio and, in the sense of “experience”, with periculum and experimentum.[5]

Covarrubias in 1611 called it a legal term, and added the senses “trial” (to put a friend to the test), “rehearsal” and the printer's first sheet that is corrected before printing.[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the sense “experiment, test” and the legal sense of a party's right made good by witnesses or documents, quoting the Partidas: „Pruéba es averiguamiento que se face en juicio, en razon de alguna cosa que es dubdosa”.[17] Terreros recalled that in former times innocence was proved by duels or by touching red-hot iron.[18] The Academy's 1884 dictionary added the arithmetical check of a sum and a small portion of food tasted to judge its quality.[19] The current dictionary also lists a medical test, an examination, an event in some sports and a photographic print.[20]

In Mexico and Chile prueba names a feat performed in a show, above all by acrobats.[21][22][23] Santamaría records it for Puerto Rico and Peru, and the Canarian historical dictionary has pruebas “acrobatics” from about 1860.[21][22][23]

Timeline

  • 1219 – first record, in the Fuero de Guadalajara.[6][3]
  • c. 1236 – Berceo writes „Pruevas avemos muchas en esto e en al” in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.[14][13]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for an experiment and for evidence.[15]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin probatio, periculum and experimentum as equivalents.[5]
  • 1540 – first record in the Americas, in a lawsuit in Panama: „reçibidos a prueva con término de nueve días”.[24]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records the senses “trial”, “rehearsal” and “printer's proof”.[16]
  • c. 1860 – first Canarian record of the plural in the sense “acrobatics”.[23]
  • 1884 – the Academy adds the arithmetical check and the sample of food.[19]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of testing or proving something.[20][1]
  2. proof, evidence: an argument, document or other means that shows something to be true or false: No tenían ninguna prueba contra él.[20][1]
  3. A sign or token of something: Le dio el anillo en prueba de su cariño.[20]
  4. A trial or test of something, to see how it will turn out: Hicieron una prueba con el motor nuevo.[20][1]
  5. (mathematics) An operation done to check that a calculation is correct.[20]
  6. A medical test or analysis.[20][25]
  7. A small amount of a food taken to judge its quality.[20]
  8. An examination of someone's knowledge or ability.[20][1]
  9. (sports) An event or competition.[20][1]
  10. (photography) A print of an image; a trial impression of an engraving.[20]
  11. (law) The establishing in court of the facts in dispute, by the means the law recognises.[20]
  12. (printing, usually plural) A proof sheet, printed for correction before the final printing.[20][1]
  13. (Mexico, Chile) A feat performed in a show, especially by an acrobat.[21][25]

Usage notes

A prueba de means “proof against” (a prueba de balas “bulletproof”), and a prueba de fuego is a decisive test in which someone must show that they are up to what is expected.[1][20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. prueba
  3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 657
  4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5224
  5. ^ a b c 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. prueba
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. probar
  7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 579
  8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prova
  9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. prova
  10. ^ a b Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 116
  11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. probō
  12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. probus
  13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. prueba
  14. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 615
  15. ^ 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. prueba
  16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1234
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 418
  18. ^ 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, 234
  19. ^ 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. 875
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. prueba
  21. ^ 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. prueba
  22. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 891
  23. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. prueba
  24. ^ 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. prueba
  25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prueba
Cite this entry

“Prueba.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/prueba. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·