solamente

Forms

solamente^[1] Old Spanish wrote it solamientre, sola mientre, solamiente and sola mente;^[1] tan solament and solament occur in Navarrese and Aragonese documents.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Spanish sola + -mente, the feminine of solo with the adverb ending.^[4][1] Wiktionary traces it through Old Spanish solamientre to a Medieval Latin phrase sōlā mente.^[1] Old Spanish wrote the ending as -mientre or -miente.^[2] The noun mente had an inherited form miente, in use until the Golden Age.^[5]

The adjective continues Latin sōlus (“alone, only”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's first primary record is tansolament in the Becerro of Benevívere, of about 1220–1230.^[2] The Fuero de Zorita (1218 to about 1250) has tan solament, and Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (about 1236, in a copy of the late 13th century) has solamientre, the form Corominas dates from Berceo.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the adverb alone and in tan solamente, both found in the 13th-century texts.^[3][2] The phrase solamente que “provided only that” appears in Alfonso X's astronomical works.^[6] Nebrija gave it the Latin equivalents tantum, solum and dumtaxat, and the Autoridades defined it as “in one way only, in one thing only, or without anything else”, a definition the Academy has kept.^[7][8][9] Moliner gives sólo and únicamente as its synonyms.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1220–1230 – tansolament in the Becerro of Benevívere.^[2]
• c. 1236 – Berceo has solamientre.^[3][4]
• 1254–1260 – Alfonso X's astronomical works have sola mientre que.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija lists sola mente and tan sola mente.^[11]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, in Puebla.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the phrase solamente que.^[13]

Meanings

Adverb

1. only, solely; in one way or one thing and nothing else: Solamente quedan dos entradas.^[9][1][10]

Related words

• solo
• sólo
• mente
• Latin sōlus

Usage notes

Solamente que means “provided only that”;^[10] Moliner also gives it the sense “except that”.^[9][10] No solamente … sino “not only … but” is found in the 16th-century records of the Americas and in the Quijote.^[12][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. solamente
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. solamente
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 295
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mente
6. ^ 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. solamente
7. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 417
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 137
9. ^ a b c 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. solamente
10. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. solamente
11. ^ 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. solamente
12. ^ 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. solamente
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 985
14. ^ 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. 1043