si

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish si, inherited from Latin sī (“if”).^[2][3][1] The Latin conjunction had the older spelling ⟨sei⟩, still found in early inscriptions and in Plautus.^[4][5]

The same Latin word is Catalan si, Portuguese se, Galician se, Italian se, French si and Romanian să.^[6][7][1] García de Diego gives the form with ⟨e⟩ also for Leonese and Aragonese.^[6]

The Latin word was originally the locative of an old demonstrative, used in loosely joined clauses, “so, in this case”, as the OLD and Wiktionary explain it.^[4][1] It is related to sīc (“so, thus”), and goes back to *sei and Proto-Indo-European *só (“this, that”).^[4][1] Bénaben adds that the enlarged Latin form kept the sense “thus” and gave Spanish sí “yes”, which has a separate source.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The conjunction is first recorded in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[2] The poem has it in conditions (si lo fizieredes “if you do it”), in indirect questions with a sense of doubt, and at the head of a direct question.^[9] The DICCA-XV gives the DCECH's date as 950 and the CORDE's first hit as 1064.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The compound sino, first “except”, from si no es…, became an adversative conjunction “but” already in the Cid.^[2][5] In the Cid nadi … sinon dos peones meant “no one except two foot soldiers”, the source of the restrictive no hace sino… “he does nothing but…”.^[5]

The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century described si expressing doubt or suspicion at the head of a question, often after mas (¿mas si juzgará…?), and si that takes something as known in order to argue from it.^[11][12] The 2001 edition lists the emphatic si at the start of a sentence, the wishing si, como si and que si in comparisons, and the concessive “even if”; it marks as disused the old use of si for sino, si también.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses si and sinon.^[2][9]
• 1201 – the first texts in the Old Spanish Textual Archive with si.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's vocabulary has si as a conditional conjunction, Latin si.^[10]
• 1843 – the Academy describes si of doubt and suspicion.^[11]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. if: introduces a condition on which something else depends: Si llueve, nos quedamos en casa.^[3][1]
2. whether: introduces an indirect question, sometimes with doubt: No sé si vendrá.^[3][1]
3. Introduces a firm assertion, as a reproach: ¡Si te lo avisé ayer!^[3]
4. Stresses a quality: Es valiente, si los hay.^[3]
5. At the start of a sentence, gives force to doubt or a wish: ¡Si pudiera volver atrás!^[3]
6. After como or que, in comparisons: como si “as if”.^[3][1]
7. Even if: No lo haría si me lo pidieras de rodillas.^[3]
8. (often after pero) Points out something obvious, usually left untranslated.^[1]

Word family

• sino
• como si
• por si
• si bien
• si no

Related words

• sí
• Latin sī
• Portuguese se

Usage notes

The conjunction is written without an accent, unlike sí “yes” and the reflexive pronoun sí, which come from Latin sic and sibi.^[8][1] The musical note si is a separate word: its name is made of the initials of Sancte Ioannes, the opening words of a line of the hymn to Saint John the Baptist from which the other notes were also named.^[3][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. si
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. si
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sī
5. ^ a b c d Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. si
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6108
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7889
8. ^ a b 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. sí
9. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. si
10. ^ 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. si
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 666
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 712
13. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. si
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. si
15. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. si