rendición

Forms

rendición f (plural rendiciones)^[1] Old Spanish wrote rendicion, rrendiçion and arrendiçion.^[2]

Etymology

According to the DLE it is borrowed from Latin redditio (“a giving back”), which is formed from Latin reddō + -tiō.^[3][4] It has the ⟨nd⟩ of the verb rendir, among whose derivatives Corominas lists it.^[5][6] That verb, Old Spanish render, comes from Vulgar Latin *rendere, an alteration of reddō (“to give back, hand over”) under the influence of its opposite prendere (“to take”).^[5][6]

In Medieval Latin redditio meant “payment, due, income”, much like the old Spanish senses “ransom” and “yield”.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Úbeda (1251–1285) uses rrendiçion for the ransom of a captive: pague el sennor del moro la rrendiçion & saque el catiuo, “let the Moor's master pay the ransom and take out the captive”.^[8] This ransom sense, “the price at which someone is redeemed”, is the DLE's last, now obsolete sense.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “surrender” of a town or an army appears by the 14th century: about 1350 the people of a besieged city a rendiçion se dieron “gave themselves up in surrender”.^[8] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it only as the act of giving something up, with the Latin deditio, and Corominas dates the word from there, to 1737.^[10][5][6]

The Academy's dictionary of 1899 adds the yield or profit of a thing and an amount of coin minted but not yet authorised for circulation.^[11] The word is also used for the rendering of accounts, rendición de cuentas.^[12]

Timeline

• 1251–1285 – the Fuero de Úbeda uses rrendiçion for a captive's ransom.^[8]
• 1256–1265 – Alfonso X's Partidas have rendicion.^[2]
• c. 1350 – a translation of the Historia de Jerusalem uses it for the surrender of a besieged city.^[8]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades, the first record in Corominas.^[10][5][6]
• 1791 – the first record in the Americas, in Lima.^[13][13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary adds the senses “yield” and “minted coin not yet authorised”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or effect of rendering or of surrendering: La rendición de la ciudad se firmó al amanecer.^[3][1]
2. The yield or profit that something gives.^[3]
3. (numismatics) An amount of coin minted before passing the checks that allowed it to circulate.^[3]
4. (obsolete) The price paid to redeem or ransom a captive.^[3][9]

Related words

• rendir
• rendimiento
• renta
• Latin redditio

References

1. ^ a b c 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. rendición
3. ^ 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. rendición
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 873
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rendir
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ 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. rendición
9. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rendición
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. rendición
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 862
12. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. rendición
13. ^ 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. rendición