síntoma

Forms

síntoma m (plural síntomas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin symptōma (“symptom”), a medical word of Late Latin.^[2][3][4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (sýmptōma, “coincidence; mishap; symptom”), from συμπίπτω (sympíptō, “to fall together, coincide, happen”), which is made of σύν (sýn, “together”) and πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”).^[2][4][5][1]

In Greek the noun meant anything that happens, a chance occurrence and a mishap, and in Galen a property of something.^[5] Bénaben traces the medical sense to a “coincidence of signs”, a disorder that comes with a disease and so reveals it.^[4] The word tomaína comes from πτῶμα (ptôma, “fall; corpse”), another derivative of the same Greek verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Spanish record in the CDH is the 1495 translation of Gordonio's Lilio de medicina, which fears that a poisonous matter turning inward may be vía de sínthoma, “by way of a symptom”.^[6][7] Five years earlier Alfonso de Palencia's Latin–Spanish vocabulary had defined Latin sintoma as a harmful accident, like a headache in fevers.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The DCECH's first record is Oudin's dictionary, which translates simptoma as an accident in illnesses;^[8] Covarrubias does not have it.^[2][9] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 defined it as a medical term: an accident that comes with an illness and allows one to judge its nature.^[8] The DLE adds the general sense “sign of something that is happening or about to happen”, as in signs of improvement in relations or in the economy.^[3][10]

Modern medicine distinguishes the síntoma, which only the patient perceives, from the signo, which an observer can see too.^[7] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1592 in Mexico City, spelt símpthoma.^[11]

Timeline

• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia defines the Latin word sintoma.^[6]
• 1495 – first Spanish record, sínthoma, in the translation of Gordonio's Lilio de medicina.^[6][7]
• 1592 – first record in the Americas, símpthoma, in Mexico City.^[11]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary, the DCECH's first record.^[2][9]
• early 18th century – the derivative sintomático appears in Martínez's Medicina escéptica.^[2]
• 1843 – the Academy defines it as a medical term.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) A change in the body that reveals an illness; a symptom: La tos y la fiebre son síntomas habituales de la gripe.^[3][1][10]
2. A sign or indication of something that is happening or about to happen.^[3][1]

Word family

• sintomático

Related words

• tomaína
• Latin symptoma

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 258
3. ^ 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. síntoma
4. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. síntoma
5. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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. síntoma
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. síntoma
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 669
9. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 759
10. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. síntoma
11. ^ 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. símptoma