traducir

Forms

traducir (first-person singular present traduzco, first-person singular preterite traduje, past participle traducido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trādūcō (“to lead across, transfer”), formed trāns- (“across”) + dūcō (“to lead”).^[2][3][1][4] Corominas lists it among the learned words from the Latin verb in his article on aducir, with a first record in Alonso de Palencia's dictionary of 1490; the BDELC dates it about 1450.^[5][6] Following Migliorini, he notes that the sense “to put into another language” was introduced by the Florentine humanist Leonardo Bruni and spread to the other European languages in the 15th century.^[5] VOX also dates the borrowing to the 15th century.^[7]

The Latin verb also had a popular outcome, trocir (“to pass, go past”), shared with Old Portuguese, which García de Diego sets beside the learned word.^[8][9] The same learned word is French traduire, Italian tradurre, Portuguese traduzir and Catalan traduir.^[9][10] French took it from Latin in 1480.^[11]

The simple verb goes back to *douk-e- and *dewk- (“to draw”), which also gave Welsh and Breton verbs for “to bring, carry”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juan de Mena's Homero romanzado of 1442, known from a late 15th-century copy, speaks of the daring de traduzir e interpretar una tan santa y seráfica obra como la Ylíada de Omero “to translate and interpret so holy and seraphic a work as Homer's Iliad”.^[13] In Pero Díaz de Toledo's version of Plato's Phaedo (1446–1447), Leonardo of Arezzo se trabajó a traduzir … del griego en la lengua latina aqueste libro “took pains to translate this book from Greek into Latin”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Marquis of Santillana uses the verb in his letters, and Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary of about 1495 gives traduzir de una lengua en otra as Latin verto.^[13][14] In 1611 Covarrubias noted that the Latin verb had other senses, but in Spanish it meant turning the sense of one language into another, as translating a book from Italian or French into Castilian.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades added “to change, convert”, with a quotation from Gracián, and pointed out the irregular forms traduzco and traduxe.^[16] In the Quijote Cervantes uses it of the fictional translator of the story, and has Don Quixote talk about translating from Tuscan into Castilian.^[17]

In 1855 Baralt condemned traducir in the sense “to explain, interpret, attribute” as one of the crudest Gallicisms, but the Academy accepted “to explain, interpret” as a figurative sense in 1884.^[18][19] The pronominal traducirse en “to result in, turn into” is now common.^[20][1]

Timeline

• 1442 – Juan de Mena's Homero romanzado (in a late 15th-century copy).^[13]
• 1446–1447 – Pero Díaz de Toledo's translation of the Phaedo.^[13]
• before 1452 – the Marquis of Santillana uses it in a letter to his son.^[13]
• 1490 – first record for Corominas, in Alonso de Palencia.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin verto and traduco for it.^[14]
• 1538 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as rendering one language in another.^[15]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns the sense “to explain, interpret” as a Gallicism.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the figurative sense “to explain, interpret”.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To translate: to express in one language what was written or said in another: Tradujo la novela del ruso.^[2][1]
2. To convert, change, turn; pronominal traducirse en, to result in: Tanto esfuerzo se tradujo en buenas notas.^[2][20][1]
3. To explain, interpret.^[2]

Word family

• traducible
• intraducible

Related words

• traducción
• traductor
• aducir
• conducir
• Latin trādūcō

Usage notes

It is conjugated like conducir: traduzco, traduje, tradujo.^[1][16] The language one translates into takes a (al castellano), but en when an adjective goes with it (en buen castellano).^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. traducir
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. traducir
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 61
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aducir
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. traducir
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6790
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. traducere
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. traduir
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. traduire
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. traducir
14. ^ a b 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. traducir
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1342
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 315
17. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1104
18. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 696
19. ^ 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. 1039
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. traducir
21. ^ 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. traducir