seguridad

Forms

seguridad f (plural seguridades)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish seguridat, inherited from Latin sēcūritās (“freedom from care; safety; guarantee”).^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of seguro, with the form in ⟨-t⟩ in Berceo, and notes that the earlier word was seguranza, still used in Salamanca and Asturias.^[4][5] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[6]

The same Latin word is Catalan seguretat, Portuguese seguridade and Italian sicurtà.^[7][8][9] French borrowed it as sécurité about 1190, but used it little before the 18th century.^[10]

The Latin noun is formed from sēcūrus (“free from care, safe”), itself from sē- (“without”) and cūra (“care”).^[11][1][12] De Vaan traces the last to Proto-Italic *kʷoisā- (“care, watch”) and Proto-Indo-European *kʷeis- (“to heed”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy), where the saint is said to win safety for pilgrims: a los peregrinantes gana seguridad.^[13] The Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) uses seguridat in the legal sense “surety”: De dar fiança o seguridat.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glosses it with Latin securitas and otium “ease”, and Percyvall (1591) with English “safetie”.^[14][15] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defined three senses: the state of things that makes them firm and free from risk, certainty, and a surety or bond of indemnity, mostly in money matters.^[16] The Academy's 1884 edition gave the etymology from Latin securitas.^[17]

The legal sense “surety” is common in documents from the Americas, from Nicaragua in 1529 on.^[18] Today it is obsolete, while the word has gained the sense of a service that guards a person, firm or building, and fixed phrases such as seguridad social “social security” and seguridad ciudadana “public safety”.^[2][19] Moliner's senses range from firmness and certainty to protection against risk and self-assurance.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos;^[13] Corominas dates the word 1220–1250.^[13][5]
• c. 1250 – seguridat “surety” in the Vidal Mayor.^[13]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario glosses it with securitas and otium.^[14]
• 1529 – first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[18]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “safetie”.^[15]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines three senses.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin securitas.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. safety, security: the quality or state of being safe (seguro), free from danger or risk.^[2][20][1]
2. certainty; self-confidence: Habló con mucha seguridad.^[20][1]
3. A security service that protects a person, a company or a building: Avisa a los de seguridad.^[2]
4. (obsolete) A surety or bond guaranteeing someone against loss.^[2]

Related words

• seguranza
• seguro
• asegurar
• Latin sēcūritās
• Catalan seguretat

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include seguridad social “social security”, seguridad ciudadana “public safety” and de seguridad for forces and devices that keep order or make a mechanism safe.^[2][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. seguridad
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. seguridad
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 295
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seguro
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 697
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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. seguridad
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 414
15. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 212
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 69
17. ^ 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. 965
18. ^ 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. seguridad
19. ^ a b 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. 164
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seguridad