santidad

Forms

santidad f (plural santidades)^[1] Old Spanish wrote santidat, sanctidat and sanctidad.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish santidat, also spelt sanctidat, inherited from Latin sanctitās (“sacredness, holiness”).^[3][1][4] DICCA-XV treats it instead as a Spanish derivative of santo.^[5]

The same Latin word is Italian santità, French sainteté, Occitan santitat, Catalan santedat and Portuguese santidade.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from sānctus (“holy”) with the suffix -tās.^[6][1] The adjective is the past participle of sanciō (“to make sacred”), which Wiktionary traces to Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- (“to sanctify”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where the word means a holy place: the Cid keeps vigil en essa santidad, the church of San Serván.^[7][8] Corominas dates the word to about 1140.^[9] The Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211) speaks of the vessels taken from the santidat of the Temple.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Menéndez Pidal records the sense “holy place” in the Cid, in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo and in the Libro de Alexandre.^[8] Berceo also uses the word for a person's holiness: in the Vida de San Millán the saint lives a life de tan grand santidat.^[7] Alfonso X's prose of 1270–1284 has it as the quality of being holy.^[10]

Autoridades (1739) defines it as perfection of conduct according to the law and religion, and records its use as the title of the Pope, quoting Postrados à los pies de su Santidád.^[11] Both senses are still the dictionary's.^[3] Moliner adds the phrase en olor de santidad.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses santidad for a holy place.^[7][8]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum has santidat, the first record DEMel takes from a text.^[2]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán uses it for a saint's holiness.^[7]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for the quality of being holy.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin sanctitas, sanctitudo and sanctimonia.^[13]
• 1739 – Autoridades records the title of the Pope.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin sanctitas.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. holiness, sanctity: the quality of being holy: Todos hablaban de la santidad de aquel ermitaño.^[3][12][1]
2. A title of honour given to the Pope, with Su or Vuestra: Su Santidad visitará México en otoño.^[3][12]

Related words

• santo
• santificar
• Latin sanctitās
• Portuguese santidade

Usage notes

As a form of address for the Pope it is often written with a capital: Su Santidad.^[12] Morir en olor de santidad is said of someone who dies with a reputation for holiness.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. santidad
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. santidad
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7568
5. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. santidad
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sanctitās
7. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. santidad
8. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 433
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. santo
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. santidad
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. santidad
12. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. santidad
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 413
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 958