siglo

Forms

siglo m (plural siglos)^[1] Old Spanish sieglo was the general form in the 12th and 13th centuries;^[2] siglo gained ground in the 14th and was the usual form from the 15th.^[3][4] Medieval texts also have syglo, seglo, seclo and sieculos.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sieglo, inherited from Latin saeculum (“generation; lifetime; age”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas calls it a semi-learned descendant of the Latin word, and Wiktionary notes that a fully popular development would have given a quite different form.^[3][1]

The same Latin word is Old Galician-Portuguese segre, Old Occitan secle, French siècle and Italian secolo;^[6][7][1] so are Aragonese sieglo and Asturian sieglu.^[6][7][1] Coromines calls Catalan segle a half-learned descendant as well, while García de Diego takes the Catalan variant sigle from Spanish.^[8][7]

De Vaan traces the Latin noun to *sai-tlo- and *seh₂i-tlo- (“lifespan”), and compares *saitlo-, the source of Welsh and Breton words for “lifespan, age”.^[9] Wiktionary connects it with *sh₂ey- (“to bind”), successive generations being linked together, and mentions a rival derivation from *seh₁- (“to sow”); the OLD calls the origin doubtful.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is siéculo in the Glosas Emilianenses, of about 950.^[3] The Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in an early 13th-century copy) uses sieglo for life on earth: Visco Enoch en aquest sieglo ccclxx annos “Enoch lived in this world 370 years”.^[11] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) a los días del sieglo means “for ever”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the commonest old senses were “life on earth” and “the world”, and also “eternal life” (sieglo mayor in the Libro de Alexandre).^[3] The Fuero de Zorita speaks of monks who renounce el sieglo “the world”.^[11] From this sense comes seglar “layman” (1212).^[4] Alfonso X's prose already has the four main senses: a hundred years, a very long time, lay life as opposed to religious life, and the earthly world.^[12]

Nebrija defined it as a space of a hundred years, and Covarrubias explained it as the full age of a man, adding that siglo is the worldly life as opposed to the religious one.^[13][14] In Cervantes por el siglo de mi madre swears by the eternal rest of one's mother.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the hundred years, the age of a thing, and the hyperbolic “a very long time”.^[16] Moliner records Siglo de Oro, the golden age of Spanish literature, el siglo de las luces and por los siglos de los siglos “for ever and ever”.^[17] In Andalusia del siglo means “the best, the most remarkable”.^[18] The word passed into Tagalog, Cebuano and Papiamentu.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses have siéculo.^[3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has sieglo.^[11][4]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum uses it for life on earth.^[11]
• 1212 – first record of the derivative seglar.^[4]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses sieglo for a hundred years.^[12]
• 14th century – the form siglo gains ground, in Juan Ruiz among others.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as a space of a hundred years.^[13]
• 1564 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico, of worldly people, los del siglo.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it as the full age of a man.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the sense “a very long time”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A century, a period of a hundred years.^[5][1]
2. Each of the hundred-year periods counted from the start of the Christian era: Cervantes murió a comienzos del siglo XVII.^[5][1]
3. The age in which someone flourished or something notable happened: el siglo de Luis XIV.^[5][17]
4. The world of lay life, as opposed to religious life: En el siglo se llamaba Ana Ruiz.^[5][17]
5. (colloquial) A very long time: Hace siglos que no nos vemos.^[5][1]

Word family

• seglar

Related words

• secular
• secularizar
• Latin saeculum
• Catalan segle

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include Siglo de Oro and por los siglos de los siglos.^[17][1] Centuries are written with Roman numerals: el siglo XV.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. siglo
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 245
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siglo
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. siglo
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5815
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 735
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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. siglo
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. siglo
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 416
14. ^ 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. 1298
15. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1034
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 110
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siglo
18. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 576
19. ^ 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. siglo