soledad

Forms

soledad f (plural soledades)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sōlitās (“being alone, solitude”), a word of early and late Latin used for the classical sōlitūdō.^[2][1][3][4] Old Spanish wrote it soledat, solidat and soleytad.^[5][6] The Latin noun is formed from sōlus (“alone”) with the suffix -tās.^[7][1][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese saudade “longing, nostalgia”, Old Galician-Portuguese soidade and suidade, Galician soidade, Asturian soledá and Catalan soledat.^{[9][10][11][12]} Nascentes explains the ⟨au⟩ of the Portuguese word by the influence of saúde (“health”).^[13] Corominas notes that the sense “longing” of the Spanish word is a sister of the Portuguese one;^[14][15][1] Spanish has also used saudade itself, a doublet borrowed from Portuguese.^[14][15][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the Calila e Dimna of 1251, known from a copy of the late 14th or early 15th century, where good teaching and good lineage make a man lose his soledat “loneliness” even in a foreign land.^[5] DEMel has the forms solidad, soledad and soleytad in the Flores de filosofía, before 1250.^[6] Corominas's first record is Alfonso de Palencia, 1490.^[14][15]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word meant the state of being alone, the opposite of company: the Libro de los cien capítulos says there is no worse solidat than small and quarrelsome company.^[5] Nebrija (c. 1495) gives Latin solitudo as its equivalent.^[16][17] The sense “longing for someone absent” appears in the second half of the 16th century, in a letter of Philip II and in the second part of Don Quixote, where the knight feels his soledad when Sancho leaves for his island;^[14][15][18] Corominas notes that this sense is now used mostly in the Canary Islands and Argentina.^[14][15][18]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gives three senses: the lack of company, a desert or uninhabited place, and the orphanhood or loss of a loved person, by excellence the Soledad of Our Lady at the death of her Son.^[19] The Academy's 1899 edition added grief at someone's absence with the wish to see them again, and a melancholy Andalusian tune in three-eight time with its copla and dance, the later soleá.^[20] The female name Soledad is short for María de la Soledad, a title of the Virgin Mary.^[1][21] In Colombia soledad is a name of the quetzal.^[22]

Timeline

• before 1250 – the Flores de filosofía have solidad, soledad and soleytad.^[6]
• 1251 – Calila e Dimna has soledat, in a copy of the late 14th or early 15th century.^[5]
• c. 1300 – the Escorial Bible I.j.8 has soledat, the first record without a later copy.^[5]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses it, Corominas's first record.^[14][15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin solitudo as its equivalent.^[17]
• second half of the 16th century – the sense “longing” appears, in a letter of Philip II.^[14][15]
• 1564 – first record in the Americas, in Peru.^[23]
• 1817 – the Academy lists the lack of company, a desert place and orphanhood.^[24]
• 1876 – first record of the derivative soledoso “longing”.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “longing” and the Andalusian tune and dance.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. solitude, loneliness: lack of company, chosen or not.^[2][1]
2. A lonely or uninhabited place, often in the plural: las soledades del monte.^[2][25]
3. Grief and melancholy felt at the absence, death or loss of someone or something.^[2][25]
4. The soleá, an Andalusian song and dance.^[2][26]
5. (Colombia) The quetzal.^[22]

Word family

• soledoso
• soleá

Related words

• solo
• solitario
• saudade
• Latin solitas

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. soledad
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. solitas
5. ^ 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. soledad
6. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. soledad
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 653
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3032
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. soledat
12. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. soledá
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. saudade
14. ^ 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, 295
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. solo
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 417
17. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 195
18. ^ a b 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. 1044
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 139
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 924
21. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
22. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. soledad
23. ^ 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. soledad
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 810
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. soledad
26. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. soledad