total

Forms

total m or f (masculine and feminine plural totales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin tōtālis (“entire, total”), from Latin tōtus (“whole, all”) and -ālis.^{[2][1][3][4][5]} The popular descendant of the Latin adjective is todo, under which Corominas treats it.^[3][6]

The same Latin adjective is continued in Portuguese todo, Catalan tot, French tout and Italian tutto; the REW explains the doubled ⟨-tt-⟩ of several of these forms as an emphatic pronunciation.^[7] The origin of the Latin adjective is unknown: de Vaan finds none of the proposed etymologies convincing.^[8] Wiktionary mentions a possible link with Oscan touto (“community”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first reliable hit in the CDH is in Fernández de Heredia's Aragonese translation of Plutarch (1379–1384), in the phrase total destruccion de Roma “the total destruction of Rome”.^[9] Fifteenth-century texts use it in the same way: obediençia total in the sermons of Saint Vincent Ferrer (1411–1412) and priuacion total del officio “total loss of office” in an ordinance for Zaragoza (1414).^[9] Corominas names Santillana as his first author, about 1440.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades had the adjective, “general, universal and including everything of its kind”, and the noun, “the whole that results from joining many separate parts”, used especially in accounts.^[10] Terreros gave it the equivalents suma and producto as well as “whole, entire”.^[11] In 1884 the Academy gave its first etymology, “from Latin totus”, and defined the noun as the sum in algebra and arithmetic.^[12]

In speech total came to sum up a story: Román, in Chile, reported the frequent Total: que... “to sum up”, and Segovia recorded it in Argentina as an elliptical expression.^[13][14] The Academy has since given it a place as an adverb, “in short, in conclusion”.^[2] Vox also records the colloquial gratis total “completely free”, and DAMER the phrase en total “in short” in Bolivia and Chile.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1379–1384 – total destruccion in Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch.^[9]
• 1411–1412 – obediençia total in the sermons of Saint Vincent Ferrer, in a copy of 1448.^[9]
• c. 1440 – Santillana, Corominas's first record.^[4][3]
• 1563 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán: total destrucción y daño.^[17]
• c. 1570 – the derivative totalidad.^[4]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the adjective and the noun of accounts.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin totus.^[12]
• 1911 – Segovia records total as a summing-up expression in Argentina.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. total, complete: general, universal and including everything of its kind: una renovación total.^[2][1]

Noun

1. The sum, the result of an addition or other operations: el total de la cuenta.^[2][1]

Adverb

1. (colloquial) In short, so, to sum up: Total, que nos quedamos sin cena.^[2][1][18]

Word family

• totalidad
• totalitario
• totalmente
• totalizar

Related words

• todo
• tute
• Latin tōtus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. total
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 528
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. todo
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. totalis
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. totus
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8815
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. total
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 310
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. 3, 673
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1038
13. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 518
14. ^ a b Segovia, Lisandro (1911), Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos, Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, p. 293
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. total
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. total
17. ^ 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. total
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. total