testimonio

Forms

testimonio m (plural testimonios)^[1] Old Spanish also used a feminine testimonia (plural testimonias, testemunias).^[2][3] The Fuero de Madrid has the form testemuno.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin testimōnium (“evidence, testimony”), a learned word already present in the Glosas Silenses at the end of the 10th century.^[5][6][7][1] The noun is formed from Latin testis (“witness”) + -mōnium,^[8][1][9] and de Vaan traces the first part to Proto-Italic *tristo- and Proto-Indo-European *trito-sth₂-o- (“third standing by”), the third person present at a dealing.^[10][11]

The everyday Spanish word for a witness, testigo, is not from this noun but from the old verb testiguar (“to testify”).^[6] The same Latin word is the semi-learned Portuguese testemunho,^[12][13] Catalan testimoni and Galician testemuña;^[14] it also became French témoin, which means “witness”.^[15][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses of the late 10th century are the first record.^[5][6] The first hit in a Spanish text of the CDH is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Laban and his kinsmen raise un gran monton de piedras que fuessen moion en este testimonio “a great heap of stones to be a boundary mark in this witness”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word means an attestation or statement, and also a proof or sign; there the feminine testimonias is used for signs read in the stars.^[3] The phrase falso testimonio already names the false accusation of the commandment: non diras falso testimonio “thou shalt not bear false witness”.^[3] The word sometimes took the sense “false testimony, slander” on its own (Lope, Canarian “slander, lie”).^[6] The sense “witness”, normal in Catalan and French, was rare in Castilian: Corominas finds it in the Leyes de Moros of the 14th–15th centuries, and already in the Latin of the Peregrinatio Aetheriae and the Glosas Emilianenses.^[6]

The Diccionario de Autoridades has four senses: attestation, a notary's legal document certifying a fact, proof, and false accusation, mostly as falso testimonio.^[16] From 1817 the Academy listed “witness” as an old sense,^[17] and the DLE now marks it obsolete.^[7] The DLE adds the sense used in textual criticism, each manuscript or printed copy that makes up the tradition of a text.^[7]

Timeline

• late 10th century – the Glosas Silenses.^[5][6]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) uses it of a heap of stones raised as a witness.^[4]
• 1220–1250 – the verb testimoniar is first recorded.^[5]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas has the feminine testimonias “signs, evidence”.^[3]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria quotes the commandment non diras falso testimonio.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin testimonium for it.^[18][19]
• 1526 – the first record from the Americas, in Honduras, in the legal phrase dar por testimonio.^[20]
• 1817 – the Academy lists the sense “witness” as old.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin testimonium.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. testimony, attestation or statement of something: La policía recogió el testimonio de los vecinos.^[7][1]
2. (law) A document authorised by a public official certifying a fact, or copying all or part of another document.^[7]
3. proof, evidence of the truth or certainty of something: Estas murallas son testimonio de la riqueza de la ciudad.^[7][22]
4. A false accusation, an imposture; usually falso testimonio.^[7][16]
5. (textual criticism) Each of the manuscript or printed texts that make up the textual tradition of a work.^[7]
6. (obsolete) A witness.^[7][1]

Word family

• testimoniar
• testimonial

Related words

• testigo
• testificar
• atestiguar
• testamento
• Latin testimōnium

Usage notes

Set phrases: falso testimonio “false accusation”, in law the crime of a witness, expert or interpreter who lies in court;^[22] levantar falsos testimonios “to slander”; and in law deducir testimonio, to separate part of a case for another proceeding.^[7][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. testimonio
3. ^ a b c d e 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. testimonio
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. testimonio
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. testigo
6. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 478
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. testimonio
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 681
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. testemunho
13. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3284
14. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8685
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 263
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 840
18. ^ 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. testimonio
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 422
20. ^ 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. testimonio
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 957
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. testimonio