sistema

Forms

sistema m (plural sistemas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin systēma (“a whole made of several parts”), which is from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma, “organized whole, body; system”).^[2][3][1] The Greek noun is formed on συνίστημι (sunístēmi, “to place together, unite, compose”), from σύν (sún, “with, together”) and ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to make stand”), with the noun suffix -μα (-ma).^[2][1][4] Corominas treats it in his article on estar, since the Greek verb belongs to the same Indo-European root as the Latin stō (“to stand”).^[2][5]

In Late Latin the word is rare: Lewis and Short cite it from Martianus Capella and Fulgentius.^[6] Du Cange notes that astronomers used it for the order and form of the world.^[7] In Greek it already meant a body of parts, a literary composition, a political constitution and a confederacy.^[8] The same learned word is French système and Italian sistema.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates sistema to the beginning of the 18th century and Vox to the 18th century.^[2][10][5] The CDH has earlier hits, but its two oldest are modern texts filed under early dates, and a 1617 hit (metido en la sistema, of Joseph thrown into the pit by his brothers) seems to be a misspelling of cisterna.^[11] The first sure record is Juan Pablo Bonet's 1620 book on teaching the deaf to speak, where the rules for words ending in two or three letters are to be taught por el mismo sistema “by the same method”.^[11] Lope de Vega in 1624 speaks of the sistema de los versos, the arrangement of verse.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense in the dictionaries is a set of rules or principles on a subject linked together, as in a system of government or medicine.^[12] Terreros, in the 1780s, gives first the astronomers' sense, a hypothesis on the order of the universe such as the Copernican system, and then a body of doctrine whose parts depend on one another.^[9] In the 19th century the Academy also gave sistema as the name of a gold or silver braid finished on one side only, a sense later dropped.^[12][13] Salvá added the familiar sense of a person's own way of doing things.^[14]

By 1869 the Academy listed the anatomical sense (a set of organs working together, as the nervous system), the physical one (the solar system) and the metric system.^[13] The general sense “set of things ordered together toward an end” came in 1899.^[15] Today linguistics uses it for the structured set of units that define one another by opposition, and in politics, colloquially, el sistema is the established order.^[3][1] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1746, in Mexico, once in the spelling systhema.^[16]

Timeline

• 1620 – Juan Pablo Bonet uses sistema for a method of teaching.^[11]
• 1624 – Lope de Vega writes of the sistema de los versos.^[11]
• early 18th century – the date Corominas gives for the first record.^[2][10]
• 1746 – first records in Mexico, one spelt systhema.^[16]
• 1780s – Terreros defines the astronomers' sistema and the sense “body of doctrine”.^[9]
• 1843 – the Academy defines it as a set of linked rules or principles, and as a one-sided braid.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the nervous system, the solar system and the metric system.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin and Greek and the general sense of an ordered set of things.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A set of rules or principles on a subject, linked together in a rational way: un sistema de normas para el tráfico.^[3][17]
2. A set of things related in an orderly way that together serve a purpose; a system: el sistema de riego del pueblo.^[3][17]
3. (biology) A set of organs taking part in one of the main functions of the body: sistema nervioso.^[3]
4. (linguistics) A structured set of units defined by their oppositions, such as a language or one of its components.^[3]
5. A way or method of doing something: Tiene un sistema muy suyo para ordenar los papeles.^[17][1]
6. (politics, colloquial) The establishment; a political regime.^[1]

Word family

• sistémico
• sistemático
• sistematizar

Related words

• sistemática
• sistemáticamente
• estar
• éxtasis
• Latin systema

Usage notes

The set phrase por sistema means “as a rule, systematically”.^[1] The DLE lists technical phrases such as sistema acusatorio in law and sistema astático in physics.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 776
3. ^ 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. sistema
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 650
5. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sistema
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. systema
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. systema
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. σύστημα
9. ^ a b c Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 503
10. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estático
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. sistema
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 670
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 716
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1002
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 919
16. ^ 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. sistema
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sistema