señor

Forms

señor m (plural señores, feminine señora, feminine plural señoras, diminutive señorito)^[1] Old Spanish wrote sennor, also seynor, senor and Latinising senior.^[2][1] As a title it was worn down to seor, sor and so, and in the Americas to iñor and ño (feminine ña).^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin senior (“older”), the comparative of senex (“old”); the Old Spanish form was sennor.^[3][5][6][1] In the plural seniores named the most respected old men in the Late Empire, the members of the Roman senate and the leaders of Jewish and Christian communities; the word then became a title of respect for any superior, and in the early Middle Ages a synonym of dominus (“master”).^[3][5] Christian use followed Ancient Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbúteros), the Greek name for the elders of the communities, which Isidore of Seville explained as a mark of rank rather than of age; in Gregory of Tours it already means simply “lord”.^[3] In Medieval Latin it was also an adjective, “foremost, chief”.^[7]

The same word is Portuguese senhor, Galician señor, Catalan senyor, Occitan senhor, French seigneur and Italian signore.^[3][1] French sire continues the nominative.^[8][1] Spanish sénior is the same Latin word, borrowed later.^[1]

senex goes back to Proto-Italic *seno- and Proto-Indo-European *sen- “old”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in a charter of 1077.^[3][5] In the Cantar de mio Cid it already has its whole range: the King and the Campeador are señor, the Cid's vassals give the title to the Christian knight Muño Gustioz and to the Moorish governor Abengalbón, it is used of God and the saints, the minstrel uses it to his audience, and it also means the owner of a sword or a horse.^[3]

Semantic evolution

At first señor served for both sexes, as still in Juan Ruiz's aquesta mi señor; the feminine señora is guaranteed by the metre in Berceo.^[3] Galician-Portuguese kept the feminine senhor much longer.^[3] The Partidas defined a señor as one who had command and power over all who lived in his land, a definition Covarrubias still quoted in 1611.^[10][11] In Alfonso X's prose it is the owner of a thing, the lord of lands, God and Jesus Christ.^[12]

Used constantly as a title, the word wore down in speech: seor in Tirso, sor in Cervantes, and finally so, which came to reinforce insults (so tonto).^[3] Italian messer, the title with the possessive, passed through Catalan to Spanish as micer, and Catalan mossén gave Spanish mosén.^[3] The Diccionario de Autoridades put the owner of a thing first, then God and the Eucharist.^[13] Colloquially, placed before a noun, it now intensifies it, “a real, a whopping”,^[14][1][15] and in Mexico, Panama and Paraguay it can mean a husband or partner.^[16]

Timeline

• 1077 – first record, in a charter.^[3][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it of the King, of God and of the owner of a horse.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario calls the king sennor de Castiella.^[12]
• 1518 – in Tierra Firme the Indians call Vasco Núñez the tiba, “the lord of the Christians”.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias quotes the definition of the Partidas.^[11]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives it from Latin senior, which in Late Latin already meant “lord”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A master or lord: a person who rules over a place or a household.^[6][1]
2. The person a servant works for.^[6]
3. A respectable person of some social standing; a gentleman.^[6][1]
4. A person of a certain age: un señor con bastón.^[6]
5. A term of respect or courtesy for addressing someone: Pase usted, señor.^[6]
6. A title placed before a surname or a post, Mr or sir: el señor Ruiz, señor ministro.^[6][1]
7. (Latin America) A title placed before a first name.^[6]
8. (colloquial) Father-in-law.^[6]
9. (historical) A feudal lord, the holder of lands and the jurisdiction over them.^[6]
10. (Mexico, Panama, Paraguay; popular) Husband or partner.^[16]
11. (el Señor, Christianity) God;^[1] Christ, especially in the Eucharist.^[6][1]

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Placed before a noun, a real, a great big: Se llevó un señor susto.^[14][1][15]
2. (colloquial) Noble, dignified, befitting a gentleman.^[14]

Word family

• señorear
• señoría
• señorío
• señorial
• señoril
• señorito
• señorita
• señorón
• enseñorearse

Related words

• sénior
• senil
• senado
• senectud
• monseñor
• Latin senior
• Portuguese senhor
• French seigneur

Usage notes

Set phrases include Nuestra Señora “Our Lady”, muy señor mío at the head of a formal letter and señor de horca y cuchillo, the feudal lord who could sentence to death.^[6] The feminine is señora; the reduced so survives before insults.^[6][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. señor
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 211
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. 734
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. señor
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. señor
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. senior
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. seigneur
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. senex
10. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. señor
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1293
12. ^ 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. señor
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 87
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. señor
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 969
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. señor
17. ^ 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. señor