recién

Etymology

It is from Spanish reciente (“recent”), shortened in the position before a past participle.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas explains that the adjective and a following participle, above all nacido, were pronounced as a single group, so that the word lost its final /e/ and then its /t/; it kept enough independence, helped by the full adjective, for the stressed vowel to diphthongise to ⟨ie⟩.^[2] The construction is old: Plautus, Arnobius and the glosses already have Latin recēns (“new, fresh; lately”) nātus (“born”) “newly born”, and the word was used with other participles too.^[2][5]

The full adjective continues the same Latin word.^[2] Corominas treats it as hereditary or at least semi-popular, because Nebrija still spelt it with the voiced ⟨z⟩ of ⟨reziente⟩.^[2] Portuguese recém is the same shortened form, which Nascentes also explains by proclisis.^[6][7][1]

De Vaan takes the Latin adjective to be probably a compound of re- (“again, back”) and a stem *kent(i)- (“young, first”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken-t- (“young, new”), which he also finds in Celtic words for “first, earlier”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the shortened form in Berceo's Milagros (stanza 569): mostrólis el ifant rezién nado del día “he showed them the child born that same day”.^[2] The CDH has a similar line in the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy), where a ninya rezién nasçida “newly born baby girl” is brought in wrapped in her clothes.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Spain the word has always stood before a past participle (recién nacido, recién llegado), and the Academy's 1899 dictionary still says it is used only there.^[2][10] The classics occasionally put it before an adjective, as in la recién viuda in the second Lazarillo and las recién libres in Cervantes's Persiles.^[2] Nebrija's dictionary has the reduced rezin casado “newly married”.^[2][11]

In Latin America recién is also used with finite verbs (recién llegó “he has just arrived”); Corominas doubts that this continues the scattered late Latin examples of recens with a finite verb.^[2] In the Río de la Plata and Chile it came to mean “not until, only then” (llegará recién mañana), already in Ascasubi and the Martín Fierro, and even “as soon as”.^[2] Nineteenth- and early 20th-century purists condemned these uses as barbarisms: Cuervo, Batres, Tobar and Bayo all allow the word only before a participle.^{[12][13][14][15]} Garzón records in Argentina a further sense, “so late”, in questions such as ¿Recién estamos a medio camino?^[16] The DLE now lists the American uses with the countries where they are found, and the DAMER records five senses, among them “only” and, in Peru, “at last”.^[4][17]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo, before the participle nado.^[3][2]
• c. 1240 – rezién nasçida in the Libro de Apolonio (14th-century copy).^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the reduced form in rezin casado.^[11][2]
• 1529 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: personas rezién venidas a esta tierra.^[18]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary calls it an apocope of reciente used only before past participles.^[10]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary accepts the American use before finite verbs and the senses “barely” and “as soon as”.^[19]

Meanings

Adverb

1. recently, newly; before a past participle: un banco recién pintado.^[4][1][20]
2. (Latin America) Just, a short while ago, before or after a finite verb: Recién salió de la oficina.^[4][17][1]
3. (Latin America) Only, barely: Llevamos recién dos días aquí.^[4][17][1]
4. (Latin America) as soon as: Recién llegó, se puso a trabajar.^[4][17]
5. (Latin America) Not until, only then, with an expression of time: Recién el lunes nos darán la respuesta.^[2][21][17]
6. (Peru) At last, finally, before an expression of time.^[17]

Related words

• reciente
• recientemente
• Latin recens
• Portuguese recém

Usage notes

In Spain the word is mostly stressed, although some speakers pronounce it unstressed before the participle.^[2] Recién nacido “newborn” is also used as a noun.^[4][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 821
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reciente
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. recién
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. recém
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. recém
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. recién
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 849
11. ^ 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. recién
12. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 269
13. ^ Batres Jáuregui, Antonio (1892), Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, Guatemala: Encuadernación y Tipografía Nacional, p. 489
14. ^ Tobar, Carlos R. (1907), Consultas al Diccionario de la lengua, 2nd ed., Barcelona: Imprenta de la Revista Ibérica, p. 412
15. ^ Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 198
16. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 425
17. ^ a b c d e f Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. recién
18. ^ 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. recién
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. recién
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recién
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. recién