sustitución

Forms

sustitución f (plural sustituciones)^[1] Late medieval and 16th-century documents also write sostituçion and sostitución.^[2][3] The Latinising spelling substitución was long the Academy's preferred form: its 1899 dictionary refers sustitución to it.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin substitūtiō (“a putting in the place of another”), a learned word.^[1][5] DICCA-XV treats it as the noun of sustituir, itself taken from substituō (“to put in the place of”).^[5] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of that verb, which he dates to Paravicino (died 1633), and notes the Academy's preference for the spelling ⟨substituir⟩.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed from that verb with the suffix -tiō.^[7][1] Its first sense was the placing of something or someone in place of another, and in legal Latin it named the appointment of an alternative heir.^[7][8] DICCA-XV traces the verb back to stō (“to stand”).^[5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Portuguese substituição, Catalan substitució and French substitution.^[9][10][1] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is a chapter heading of the Barlaam e Josafat, a work of about 1400 known from a 15th-century copy, on the sustituçion of Barachias.^[2] DICCA-XV gives 1417 as its own first date.^[5] In a document of the Catholic Monarchs of 1480 the word names a substitute teaching post at a university, listed beside the chairs (catreda o sustituçion).^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the late 15th century the word is common in two settings: university posts filled by a substitute and the law of inheritance, where the Siete Partidas (in a copy of 1491) speak of the sustituçion made for minors under twenty-five.^[2] Wills of the 1530s, among them those of the Pizarro family, use sostituçion for the naming of a later heir.^[2] In the Americas a catedrático de sustitución taught medicine in Mexico City in 1665.^[3]

The Academy's 1869 dictionary defined it as putting one person or thing in place of another, and listed the legal kinds of substitution (ejemplar, pupilar, vulgar).^[12] Modern dictionaries add technical senses in mathematics, chemistry, surgery and psychology.^[13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the Barlaam e Josafat (in a 15th-century copy) has sustituçion in a chapter heading.^[2]
• 1417 – first record in DICCA-XV.^[5]
• 1480 – a document of the Catholic Monarchs uses it for a substitute post at a university.^[2]
• 1491 – a copy of the Siete Partidas uses it of the substitution made for minors.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin substitutio as its equivalent.^[5]
• 1665 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[3]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary lists the legal kinds of substitution.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology and refers the word to the spelling substitución.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. substitution, replacement: the act or result of putting someone or something in the place of another: La sustitución del portero llegó en el descanso.^[15][16][1]
2. (law) The naming of an heir or legatee to take the place of one named before;^[17] sustitución ejemplar names the heir of someone unable to make a will because of mental illness.^[15][17]
3. (chemistry) A reaction in which an atom or group of atoms in a molecule is replaced by another.^[14]
4. (mathematics) A rearrangement of the order of a set of elements.^[13]

Related words

• sustituir
• sustituto
• sustitutivo
• Latin substitūtiō

Usage notes

The idea is often expressed with en sustitución de “in place of”, or with por and en vez de.^[16][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sustitución
3. ^ 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. sostitución
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 937
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. sustitución
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. constituir
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. substitūtiō
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. substitutio
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. substituição
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. substitució
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. substituição
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 730
13. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sustitución
14. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. sustitución
15. ^ a b 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. sustitución
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sustitución
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. sustitución