senador

Forms

senador m (plural senadores, feminine senadora, feminine plural senadoras)^[1] The feminine is senadora.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin senātor (“member of the senate”), first recorded in Berceo.^[3][2][4] The Latin noun is formed from senātus (“senate”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[5][1] The word for the senate is in turn derived from senex (“old man”), and was properly the “council of the elders”.^[5][6][7] De Vaan traces the word for “old man” to Proto-Italic *seno- (“old; old man”) and to Proto-Indo-European *sénos (“old”).^[6][1]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese senador, Catalan senador, French sénateur and Italian senatore.^[8][9][4] The Spanish senado, recorded from about 1280, is the learned borrowing of the Latin noun for the assembly, and señor continues the comparative senior (“older”) of the same adjective.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de San Millán calls a nobleman of Parpalinas un noble senador.^[10] The Libro de Alexandre of the second quarter of the 13th century also has the word.^[11] In the Estoria de España of Alfonso X it names a member of the Roman Senate: un senador que auie nombre vatino “a senator called Vatinus”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages and the Golden Age the word referred mainly to the Roman Senate and to the councils of other republics; the Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defines the senator as the magistrate who formerly sat in the Senate and decided matters of government, an office that still existed in some republics, and suggests a link with señor.^[13] In 16th-century Mexico it was also used loosely for the leading men of a city: senadores, principales o cavalleros de la ciudad.^[14]

With the Spanish constitutional Senate the word got its modern sense: Salvá (1846) describes the senator as the person whom the king chose from three candidates put forward by each province.^[15] The Academy's 1884 edition gave the etymology and the short definition “member of the senate”, which the current dictionary keeps, now for men and women.^[16][2]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has un noble senador.^[10][4][3]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses the word for a Roman senator.^[12]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it as English “senator”.^[17]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a magistrate of the Senate of former times and of some republics.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá describes the senator of the Spanish constitution.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin senator.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A senator: a member of a Senate, the upper house of a parliament: Fue senadora por su provincia durante dos legislaturas.^[2][18][1]
2. (history) A member of the Roman Senate or of the councils of former republics.^[18][13]

Word family

• senaduría

Related words

• senado
• senatorial
• señor
• senil
• Latin senex

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. senador
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 211
4. ^ a b c 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. senil
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. senador
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 296
10. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. senador
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. senador
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. senador
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 77
14. ^ 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. senador
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 989
16. ^ 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. 967
17. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 212
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. senador