romanticismo

Forms

romanticismo m (plural romanticismos)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish romántico + -ismo.^[2][1][3] romántico is recorded from the middle of the 19th century and is from French romantique, which first meant “like a novel” (1694).^[4][5] Corominas takes the French word to be probably from English romantic (1628), formed on the Anglo-French variant romant of French roman (“novel; narrative poem”), the form French made of Latin romanice.^[4][5]

The literary sense went from English to German romantisch, which in the 18th century was applied to tendencies opposed to the classical ones; from German it passed into French in 1810, and then Spanish took it from French.^[4][5] Wikcionario derives the name of the movement directly from English Romanticism.^[3] The neighbouring languages have French romantisme, Catalan romanticisme and Italian romantismo.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of 1832, in the articles of Mesonero Romanos and Larra.^[7] Mesonero complains that writers on Spain have made it un país ideal de «romanticismo» y quijotismo “an ideal country of romanticism and quixotism”, and Larra makes a character call el romanticismo “the ruin of the theatre”; the word names the new literary fashion.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 1830s the word is used of the literary school that rejected the classical rules: Larra writes in 1836 that romanticism does not consist in broken verses and descriptions of past centuries.^[7] Salvá's dictionary of 1846 still marks it as a neologism and defines it as the system of writers who leave the rules of the Greek and Latin classics.^[8] Domínguez sets it against classicism.^[9] The Academy's edition of 1869 defines it as the school drawing on the ideas and taste of the Middle Ages, against those derived from classical antiquity;^[10] in 1899 it speaks instead of literature shaped by the spirit of Christian civilisation, as opposed to that of pagan Greco-Roman antiquity.^[11]

From the beginning the word was also used of a sentimental, dreamy attitude: in Mexico in 1849 deja romanticismos: vamos al grano “drop the romanticisms, let's get to the point”.^[12] The current dictionary describes Romanticism as a cultural movement, not only a literary one, and keeps the senses “excessive sentimentality” and “quality of being romantic”.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 1694 – French romantique is first recorded, meaning “like a novel”.^[4]
• 1810 – French takes the literary sense from German.^[4]
• 1832 – Mesonero Romanos and Larra use romanticismo of the new literary fashion.^[7]
• 1846 – Salvá's dictionary lists it as a neologism.^[8]
• 1849 – first records from the Americas, in Mexico.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary defines it as a literary school.^[10]
• 1884 – romántico enters the Academy's dictionary.^[4]
• 1899 – the Academy gives it a new definition, contrasting Christian and Greco-Roman literature.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Romanticism: the cultural movement that spread through Europe from the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th, which against Neoclassicism exalted creative freedom, fantasy and feeling.^[2][13]
2. A way of artistic or literary expression that follows the ideas of Romanticism.^[2]
3. The period in which Romanticism prevailed.^[2][14]
4. Excessive sentimentality (sentimentalidad).^[2][3]
5. The quality of being romantic (romántico): Le sorprendió el romanticismo de aquella cena a la luz de las velas.^[2][1]

Related words

• romántico
• romance
• French romantisme

Usage notes

The movement and the period are often written with a capital, Romanticismo.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. romanticismo
3. ^ a b c d Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 49
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. romano
6. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 208
7. ^ 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. romanticismo
8. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 961
9. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1523
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 688
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 880
12. ^ 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. romanticismo
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. romanticismo
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. romanticismo