tardío

Forms

tardío (feminine tardía, masculine plural tardíos, feminine plural tardías)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tardío, inherited from Late Latin tardīvus (“slow; late”).^[2][1][3] The Latin adjective, attested only in the Tironian notes, was formed from Latin tardus (“slow”) with the suffix -īvus.^[3][1] Corominas calls it a derivative shared with French, Italian and Romanian.^[4] The same word is Portuguese tardio, Catalan tardiu, Asturian tardíu, French tardif, Italian tardivo and Romanian târziu.^[5][1][6]

The Latin adjective also gave the adverb tarde and the verb tardar, from tardō.^[4] De Vaan finds no etymology for the adjective and rejects a link with Greek and Sanskrit words for “weak” and “young” as unconvincing.^[7] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- (“to cross over”), with a shift from “taking long to cross” to “slow”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Berceo.^[4][2] The DEMel has the word in the Libro de Alexandre (1230–1250).^[8] In Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (c. 1254) it means “slow”, of a long and lingering death: muerte luenga, pesada & tardia.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already used tardío for fruit that ripens late, in the General estoria of 1280, and in astronomy for a planet moving slower than its mean motion.^[9] Terreros defined it as the opposite of temprano, and the Academy in 1843 put the sense of late fruit first, beside “happening after the right time” and “slow, deliberate”.^[10][11]

The modern DLE adds the sense of a dead language in its last stage, as in latín tardío “Late Latin”, and the plural noun tardíos for late-sown crops.^[12] In Cantabria and Salamanca tardío is the autumn, as tardíu is in Asturian; in Leonese it also names lambs and kids born two or three months after the others.^{[12][13][6][14]} Medicine uses it of symptoms that appear later than usual.^[15]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[2][4]
• c. 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas uses it for “slow”.^[9]
• 1280 – the General estoria uses it of late fruit.^[9]
• 1570 – first record from the Americas, of a late harvest in Nueva Galicia.^[16]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros defines it as the opposite of temprano.^[10]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary gives the sense of late fruit first.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of fruit or crops: ripening later than usual: Las uvas tardías se vendimian en noviembre.^[12][17]
2. Coming after the time when it was needed or expected; belated, late: una disculpa tardía.^[12][1]
3. Of a dead language or a period: in its last stage, as in latín tardío.^[12][17]
4. Of a person: slow, unhurried; tardo.^[12]

Noun

1. (chiefly in the plural) A late-sown crop.^[12][17]
2. (Cantabria, Salamanca) The autumn (otoño).^[12][13]

Word family

• tardíamente

Related words

• tarde
• tardar
• tardo
• retardar
• Latin tardus
• Portuguese tardio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tardar
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6574
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 417
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. tardíu
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tardío
9. ^ a b c d 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. tardío
10. ^ a b 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. 3, 588
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 690
12. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. tardío
13. ^ a b Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 639
14. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. tardío
15. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. tardío
16. ^ 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. tardío
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tardío