saturación

Forms

saturación f (plural saturaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin saturatio (“filling, satisfying”), a noun of action formed on saturō (“to fill, sate”).^[2][1][3][4] The Latin verb is from satur (“full, well-fed”), which belongs to the same root as satis (“enough”).^[5][6] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *saturo- (“well-fed”) and Proto-Indo-European *s(e)h₂-tu- (“satiation”).^[6] Spanish has the verb saturar from the same Latin source.^[5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese saturação, French saturation and Italian saturazione.^[7][8] Houaiss dates the Portuguese word to 1789.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in the chemist Luis Proust's Anales del Real Laboratorio de Química de Segovia (1791), on heating a solution of lead como para acabar la saturacion “as if to complete the saturation”.^[10] In the same year a text from Lima speaks of the saturation of the amalgam of silver and mercury.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word entered Spanish as a term of chemistry and physics: a translation of 1793 speaks of the air cooling below its degree of saturation, a pharmacopoeia of 1807 of soap as a mutual saturation of its ingredients, and metallurgy treatises of the 1850s of glass or acid at a given degree of saturation.^[10] By 1876 a medical manual applied it to the marsh air thought to cause malaria.^[10]

The Academy first recorded it in 1884, as a chemical term for the action and effect of saturar; the 1899 edition added the reflexive saturarse.^[12][13] The DLE now defines it without a field label, and Vox illustrates its use for markets and traffic.^[2][14] Wiktionary also gives the senses “satiety” and “weariness”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1791 – Proust's Anales del Real Laboratorio de Química de Segovia has saturacion.^[10]
• 1791 – a text from Lima speaks of the saturation of an amalgam.^[11]
• 1793 – a translation of Juan Andrés's history of literature uses grado de saturación of the air.^[10]
• 1807 – the word appears in an explanation of the Spanish pharmacopoeia.^[10]
• 1876 – a manual of pathology applies it to marsh effluvia.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy records it as a term of chemistry.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy extends the definition to saturarse.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. saturation: the action and effect of saturating (saturar) or of becoming saturated.^[2][15][1]
2. (chemistry) The state of a solvent that can dissolve no more of a substance.^[16][7]
3. Overloading of something beyond its capacity, as of a market or a road network: la saturación de las urgencias.^[14]
4. satiety; weariness.^[1]

Related words

• saturar
• saciar
• saciedad
• sátira
• Latin satur

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. saturación
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 714
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asaz
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 273
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3030
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. saturação
10. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
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. saturación
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 961
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 901
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. saturación
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saturación
16. ^ 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. saturar