suceso

Forms

suceso m (plural sucesos)^[1] Older texts spell it suçeso, subceso and sucesso.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin successus (“approach, arrival; succession; success”).^[5][6][7][1] The Latin noun is formed from succēdō (“to come up, follow; to turn out well”) with the action-noun suffix -tus.^[8] Corominas treats it under ceder, with suceder, sucesión and sucesor.^[5]

The same Latin word is Italian successo and French succès, which, like English success, mean “success”.^[9] Bénaben points out that the Spanish word names the event itself, the French word its happy outcome.^[10]

The verb is sub- and cēdō (“to go, withdraw”).^[11] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is a sealed letter of Alfonso XI of 1337, which refers to what is contained en el suçeso del pleito “in the course of the lawsuit”, that is, its proceedings.^[2] In the Crónica de Alfonso X of about 1340–50 the pope warns the king of the mal suceso de la tierra “the bad state of affairs in the land”.^[2] The DCECH and the BDELC date the word to 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Golden Age the word meant both an event and its outcome: Cervantes has sucessos for happenings and buen sucesso for a good result.^[13] Baralt in 1855 accepted buen suceso and mal suceso as old Spanish for “success, failure”, while objecting to the French use of the word.^[14] The Academy recorded “event” and “course of time” in 1817 and added “outcome of a business” only in 1899.^[15][16]

Today the main sense is an event of some importance; in the plural sucesos are crimes and accidents, as in the newspapers' section of that name.^[7][17] Mathematics uses it for an event in probability.^[7] In the United States the sense “success” is a popular anglicism.^[18][1]

Timeline

• 1337 – suçeso “course” of a lawsuit in a letter of Alfonso XI.^[2]
• c. 1340–1350 – mal suceso in the Crónica de Alfonso X.^[2]
• 1490 – the DCECH's first record, in Alfonso de Palencia.^[5][6]
• 1536 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama: el suceso de su viaje.^[3]
• 1605 – Cervantes uses both “event” and “outcome” in the Quijote.^[13]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines sucesso as an event.^[4]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “course of time”.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy adds “result, outcome of a business”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An event, a happening, especially an important one: Los sucesos de aquel verano cambiaron el pueblo.^[7][1]
2. An outcome, result or end of a business; success.^[7][1]
3. A crime (delito).^[7][17]
4. An accident, a mishap.^[7]
5. (mathematics) An event in a random experiment: a subset of the possible results.^[7]
6. (obsolete) The course or passing of time.^[7][15]

Related words

• suceder
• sucesión
• sucesor
• sucesivo
• Latin successus

Usage notes

Suceso is a false friend of English success and French succès: the normal Spanish word for “success” is éxito, and suceso in that sense is a gallicism or, in the United States, an anglicism.^[14][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. suceso
3. ^ 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. subceso
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 173
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 12
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suceder
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. suceso
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. successus
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 745
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. suceso
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. succēdō
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. 1052
14. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 668
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 817
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 932
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suceso
18. ^ a b Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 87