rectitud

Forms

rectitud f (plural rectitudes)^[1] 15th- and 16th-century texts often write retitud and rrectitud.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin rēctitūdō (“straightness; uprightness”).^[4][1][5] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of recto, dated about 1440.^[6] The same word is Catalan rectitud, French rectitude and Italian rettitudine.^[7][5] French borrowed it in 1370.^[8]

The Latin noun is formed from rēctus (“straight”) with the suffix -tūdō.^[1] The adjective is the participle of regō (“to direct, guide”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch, direct”).^[9][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Enrique de Villena's translation and glosses of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442) speaks of someone fallen from la rectitud de intinçión “uprightness of intent”.^[2] Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable (c. 1430–1440) pairs retitud e derechura of understanding.^[2] The CDH's earliest hit, in the Sevillana medicina of Juan de Aviñón, is from the printed edition of 1545.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The earliest Spanish records have the moral sense, which the Latin word already had in medieval texts, with legal senses such as equity and justice.^[2][11] In the Americas it is recorded from 1533, in Mexico, of a judge acting with full uprightness.^[3] Autoridades put the geometrical sense first, straightness or the shortest distance between two points, with the moral sense as a metaphor and a third sense of exactness in one's dealings.^[12] By 1843 the Academy also had the quality of being straight or just, and the DLE keeps all these senses.^[13][4]

Timeline

• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena uses rectitud de intinçión.^[2]
• c. 1440 – the date Corominas gives.^[6]
• 1533 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico, spelt retitud.^[3]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades enters it with the geometrical and moral senses.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin rectitudo.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. Straightness (derechura), or the shortest distance between two points.^[4]
2. The quality of being straight, without bends or angles: la rectitud de la carretera.^[4][15]
3. rectitude, uprightness; the quality of being just and strict: juzgó el caso con rectitud.^[4][1]
4. Right reason; practical knowledge of what one should do or say.^[4]
5. Exactness and correctness in one's dealings.^[4]

Related words

• recto
• rectificar
• rectilíneo
• regir
• Latin rectus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rectitud
3. ^ a b c 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. rectitud
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. rectitud
5. ^ a b 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. 667
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recto
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. rectitud
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rectitude
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. rectitudo
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 526
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 617
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 907
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rectitud