respeto

Forms

respeto m (plural respetos)^[1] The older spelling was respecto, as in the Corbacho and Alonso de Palencia; the two forms were not given different senses until Autoridades.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin respectus (“a looking back; regard, consideration”).^[2][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from respiciō (“to look back”) with the suffix -tus, and respiciō from re- and speciō (“to look”), the root of spectō (“to watch”).^[6][1][4][3] It is a doublet of respecto.^[1][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese respeito, Catalan respecte, French respect and Italian rispetto.^[8][9][1] French also has an inherited doublet, répit (“respite”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1438, in the form respecto in the Corbacho.^[2][4] The CDH has it two centuries earlier: in the Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) the king and queen had respecto ninguno “no regard” for a man in making a donation.^[11] The Libro del cavallero Cifar (1300–1305, in a late 15th-century copy) has por respeto de “out of regard for”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alonso de Palencia in 1490 writes that piety honours por respecto a Dios y a padre y madre.^[2] Golden Age texts had the prepositional phrase respeto de “because of”, from which respecto que “because”.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 defined respeto as the regard and reverence one has for a person, looking again and again so as not to offend.^[12] The germanía of 1609 used it for a sword.^[13] Autoridades gave “regard, veneration”, noted that common use had dropped the ⟨c⟩, and recorded de respeto “kept in reserve”.^[14] The 1884 Academy dictionary added respetos humanos and campar uno por su respeto “to act as one pleases”.^[15]

In the Americas a sense “reserve, supply” appears in 1516 in Darién, in goods de respeto.^[16] Today Peru and Bolivia have the proverb respetos guardan respetos, and Chile un sin respeto “an insolent person”.^[17] Chavacano, Central Bikol and Tagalog have borrowed the word.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – respecto “regard” in the Vidal Mayor.^[11]
• 1277 – the Libro de la açafeha uses con respecto “in relation to”.^[11]
• 1438 – respecto in the Corbacho, the first record in Corominas.^[2][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives respecto as Latin respectus.^[2]
• 1516 – goods de respeto in Darién, the first record from the Americas.^[16]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary of germanía gives respeto “sword”.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as regard and reverence.^[12]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes that the ⟨c⟩ has been dropped.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. respect, reverence shown to someone: Habla de sus maestros con mucho respeto.^[5][1]
2. Consideration, deference: el respeto a los derechos ajenos.^[5][18]
3. Something kept in reserve; a spare: una pieza de respeto.^[5]
4. Fear, wariness; see miedo.^[5]
5. (obsolete) Respect, relation.^[5]
6. (germanía) A sword.^[5][13]
7. (germanía) A lover.^[5]
8. (in the plural) Courteous greetings, respects: Dele mis respetos a su familia.^[5]

Word family

• respetar
• respetuoso
• respetable

Related words

• respecto
• respectivo
• espectáculo
• Latin respectus
• French répit

Usage notes

Respeto humano, usually plural respetos humanos, is excessive concern for others' opinion over strict morality;^[15] campar por su respeto is to do as one pleases.^[5][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 739
3. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. respeto
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. respeto
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. respeto
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. respectus
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 609
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2904
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. respecte
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. répit
11. ^ 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. respeto
12. ^ 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. 1261
13. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 196
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 596
15. ^ a b c 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
16. ^ 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. respecto
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. respeto
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. respeto