suntuoso

Forms

suntuoso (feminine suntuosa, masculine plural suntuosos, feminine plural suntuosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin sumptuōsus (“costly, expensive; lavish”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed on sumptus (“expense, cost”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[4][5] The noun is formed on sūmō (“to take”), and Corominas explains it as “what one has to take to obtain something”.^[2][3] Gómez de Silva notes that the ⟨p⟩ of the Latin noun is epenthetic.^[6]

The DCECH treats it among the learned words of the family of sumir, the inherited verb from the same Latin verb.^[2] The 16th century wrote it with the Latin spelling ⟨sumpt-⟩.^[2] The same Latin adjective gave French somptueux, Italian suntuoso and Portuguese suntuoso.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it to the Corbacho of Alfonso Martínez de Toledo, 1438.^[2][3][7] In the Americas, casas suntuosas “sumptuous houses” are recorded in New Granada in 1539.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the Latin sense “splendid and costly” from the start; in 1546 a writer in Santo Domingo spoke of the suntuosos mausoleos of the dead.^[8] The Academy's 1817 dictionary gave two senses, “magnificent, grand and costly” and, of a person, “magnificent in spending and bearing”, as the DLE still does.^[9][4] Domínguez added its use for remarkable buildings.^[10] Terreros entered the word under the spelling sontuoso.^[11]

Timeline

• 1438 – the Corbacho, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1539 – first record in the Americas, in New Granada.^[8]
• 16th century – the Latinising spelling sumpt-.^[2]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary gives the two senses still current.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin sumptuosus.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Grand and costly; sumptuous, luxurious (lujoso): Celebraron la boda en un salón suntuoso.^[4][13]
2. Of a person: magnificent (magnífico) in spending and bearing.^[4]

Word family

• suntuosamente

Related words

• suntuosidad
• suntuario
• sumir
• presuntuoso
• Latin sumptuōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 335
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sumir
4. ^ 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. suntuoso
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 663
7. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 216
8. ^ a b c 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. sumptuoso
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 820
10. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1596
11. ^ 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. 4, 215
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 997
13. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suntuoso