teoría

Forms

teoría f (plural teorías)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin theōria (“speculative inquiry”), from Ancient Greek θεωρία (theōría, “contemplation, speculation”).^[1][2][3] The DLE and the DCECH derive it directly from the Greek word.^[4][5]

The Greek noun is formed from θεωρός (theōrós, “spectator”), which first meant an envoy sent to consult an oracle or to attend a religious festival.^[1][2][6] The noun itself first named such an embassy, then the watching of a spectacle.^[6] From Plato on it meant contemplation and abstract speculation.^[6][2] Corominas connects it with θεάομαι (theáomai, “to look at, contemplate”), the source of teatro, and Wiktionary analyses the word for “spectator” as θέα (théa, “sight, view”) and ὁράω (horáō, “to see”).^[5][7][1]

The same learned word is French théorie, borrowed in the late 14th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest real record in the CDH is in Hernando de Talavera's Católica impugnación (1487): como saben los que algo leyeron de la teoría de la astrología, “as those know who have read something of the theory of astrology”.^[9] The CDH's apparently older hit, dated 1356, is in a modern explanatory note on behetría printed with the Fuero viejo de Castilla.^[9] The DCECH has its first record about 1580 in Fernando de Herrera, and says that the word was rare until the classical period, when the noun teórica (1399), the feminine of teórico, was more common.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries teoría was set against practice: in 1506 a physician writes that he wants to be useful to health rather than show his learning with teorías, and Correas (1625) opposes teoría o considerazion to pratica o exerçizio.^[9] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 still sends the reader from teoría to teórica.^[10] By 1899 it had its modern definitions, speculative knowledge apart from any application and a series of laws that relate a class of phenomena, with the Greek sense of a religious procession.^[11]

The DLE adds a hypothesis whose consequences apply to a whole science, and the phrase en teoría, “without having been tested in practice”.^[4] Moliner notes that in religion one says doctrina, not teoría.^[12]

Timeline

• 1399 – the noun teórica, then the commoner word for “theory”, is first recorded.^[5][7]
• 1487 – first record of teoría, in Hernando de Talavera.^[9]
• 1506 – Diego Álvarez Chanca uses the plural teorías in a treatise on epidemic pleurisy.^[9]
• c. 1580 – Fernando de Herrera's commentary on Garcilaso, the DCECH's first record.^[5][7]
• 1625 – Correas sets teoría against pratica.^[9]
• 1792 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy treats it as a synonym of teórica.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy gives its modern definitions and the Greek etymology.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Speculative knowledge considered apart from any application: Sabe mucha teoría, pero nunca ha dirigido una obra.^[4]
2. A series of laws that relate a given order of phenomena.^[4]
3. A hypothesis whose consequences apply to a whole science or a large part of it; an organised set of ideas that explains a phenomenon: la teoría de la evolución.^[4][12][1]
4. The body of knowledge about an activity, as opposed to its practice: Primero estudió la teoría del dibujo.^[12]
5. (history) Among the ancient Greeks, a religious procesión.^[4]

Word family

• teorizar

Related words

• teórico
• teorema
• teatro
• Late Latin theōria
• French théorie

Usage notes

En teoría means “in theory, without having been proved in practice”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. teoría
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 679
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. teoría
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 445
6. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. teatro
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. théorie
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. teoría
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 837
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 953
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. teoría
13. ^ 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. teoría