riesgo

Forms

riesgo m (plural riesgos)^[1] DEMel records riesco in a Leonese document of 1222 and riesgo and riesgos in documents of 1234.^[2] A 15th-century Aragonese cancionero has the form risgo.^[3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[4][5] Corominas thinks it is probably the same word as risco “steep crag”, old inherited from Old Spanish riesco, from the danger of those who travel such places or of a sailor who nears a reef; the DLE derives it from the old form in this way.^[4][6][5] Since both forms point to a Latin short ⟨e⟩, and the old noun meant “strife, discord”, he suggests that the whole group may come inherited from Latin resecare (“to cut off”), hence “to divide, sow discord” and “broken, rugged place”.^[4][6] He admits the case is obscure: on this view the noun should derive from the verb arriesgar, while the verb seems to derive from the noun.^[4] Wiktionary and Bénaben give the Vulgar Latin noun *resecum “something that cuts”, hence “reef”.^[1][7]

Its relatives are Old Catalan reec, Old Occitan resegue, and with a different form Italian risico (1193), Italian rischio, Portuguese risco and Catalan risc.^[4][6] French risque was taken in 1557 from Old Italian risco.^[8] The 2001 Academy dictionary derived the Spanish word from the Italian words and these from Arabic رزق (rizq, “what providence provides”), and Moliner also gives the Arabic word, perhaps through Italian or Catalan.^[9][10] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente derive the whole Romance group from the same word, “sustenance granted by God”, a word of Middle Persian origin.^[11] Corominas rejects the Arabic etymology, and the many 16th-century authors who used the native verb arriscar make him doubt a loan from Italian or Catalan.^[12][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel lists riesgo and riesgos in documents of 1234, and the DTME also dates the word from 1234.^[2][13] The old sense was “strife, discord”: in the Gran conquista de Ultramar (about 1300) Godfrey of Bouillon asks that no riesgo arise between him and the Duke of Normandy, and the Crónica de veinte reyes (before 1325) pairs it with contienda “quarrel”: „aujendo Riesgo & contienda este papa gregorio con los otros dos”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “strife” was soon forgotten after the Middle Ages, but Nebrija still translated riesgo only with Latin conflictus.^[4][14] The modern sense “danger that one runs” spread early: Corominas's first sure record is Cristóbal de las Casas (1570), who translates it with Italian rischio, and the word was in fashion in the classical period, in Fray Luis de León, Cervantes, Góngora and Ruiz de Alarcón.^[4][6] In the Americas it appears in commercial formulas such as a vuestro riesgo from 1525.^[15]

Covarrubias explained it as the danger of falling of one who walks among crags, and Autoridades repeated the link with risco.^[16][17] The insurance sense, each contingency covered by a contract, is the DLE's second sense, and the phrase a todo riesgo “fully comprehensive” belongs to it.^[5][10] In Dominican Spanish riesgo is also the forty days after childbirth.^[18]

Timeline

• 1222 – the form riesco in a Leonese document.^[2]
• 1234 – riesgo in documents listed by DEMel.^[2]
• c. 1300 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar uses it for “discord”.^[4]
• before 1325 – the Crónica de veinte reyes pairs riesgo and contienda.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija translates it with Latin conflictus.^[14]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1570 – Cristóbal de las Casas has the modern sense “danger”.^[4][6]
• 1604 – the verb arriesgar, which replaced the older arriscar.^[6]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Breton risk “slip, danger”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. risk: the possibility or nearness of harm: Corre el riesgo de perder el tren.^[5][1]
2. (insurance) Each of the contingencies that an insurance contract can cover.^[5]
3. (economics) In set phrases, the risk a lender or investor bears: riesgo de crédito, riesgo país.^[5][20]
4. (Dominican Republic) The forty days after childbirth, when a woman must take special care of her health.^[18]

Word family

• arriesgar
• arriesgado

Related words

• risco
• arriscar
• Latin resecō
• Italian rischio
• French risque

Usage notes

Common phrases are correr riesgo “to run a risk”, a riesgo de “at the risk of” and a riesgo y ventura “at one's own risk”.^[21][10][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. riesgo
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. riesgo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 13
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. riesgo
6. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. riesgo
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. riesgo
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. risque
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. riesgo
10. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. riesgo
11. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. risc
12. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. riesgo
13. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. riesgo
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 409
15. ^ 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. riejo
16. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1265
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 621
18. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. riesgo
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 935
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. riesgo
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 639