resonante

Forms

resonante m or f (masculine and feminine plural resonantes)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish resonar + -nte, as the DLE explains, and continues Latin resonāns (“echoing”), the present participle of the Latin verb behind the Spanish one.^[2][1] The 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary called it the old present participle of the Spanish verb.^[3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of sonar, with a first record in Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary of 1490.^[4][5]

The Latin verb resono (“to resound, echo”) is formed from re- and sono (“to sound”); early Latin poets also conjugated it in the third conjugation.^[6][7] Wiktionary traces the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest text in the CDH is a Castilian Libro del Tesoro in a Girona manuscript of 1400–1425, which advises against speech that is too resonante, with a fierce or harsh voice.^[8] About the same time Mosé Arragel used resonantes in his translation of the Bible of Alba (c. 1422–1433), beside canentes “singing”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was a poetic and learned one: the Marqués de Santillana praised a fame por el mundo resonante, and the Crónica de Don Álvaro de Luna speaks of resonantes alaridos “resounding shouts”.^[8] Autoridades defined it in 1737 simply as “that which resounds”, and Terreros glossed it as sonorous, giving a good sound.^[9][10]

The figurative sense “widely talked of, having great repercussion”, as in éxito resonante, is recorded in Mexico in 1940, and the DLE now gives it as its second sense.^[11][2][12] Vox also uses it in acoustics, of what relates to resonance.^[13]

Timeline

• 1400–1425 – Libro del Tesoro, in a Girona manuscript.^[8]
• before 1453 – the Marqués de Santillana's Coplas contra don Álvaro de Luna.^[8]
• 1458 – the Morales de Ovidio translated by Alfonso Gómez de Zamora.^[14][8]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario, the first record Corominas gives.^[8][5][4]
• 1573 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[11]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the Latin etymology.^[15]
• 1940 – éxito resonante “a resounding success” in Mexico.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. resonant, resounding; that resounds: Se oyó una carcajada resonante en el pasillo.^[2][12][1]
2. Having had great repercussion (resonancia) or public impact: una victoria resonante.^[2][12][13]

Related words

• resonar
• resonancia
• sonante
• Latin resono

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. resonante
3. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. resonante
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 302
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sonar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. resonante
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 596
10. ^ 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, 358
11. ^ 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. resonante
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. resonante
13. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. resonante
14. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. resonante
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 927