unidad

Forms

unidad f (plural unidades)^[1] Old Spanish wrote the word unidat or vnidat beside unidad and vnidad; the Fuero de Úbeda has hunedat.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ūnitās (“oneness, unity”), the abstract noun of ūnus (“one”) with the suffix -tās.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Wiktionary notes that by surface analysis it is the prefix uni- with -dad.^[1] It is one of a group of learned words of the same root, beside único, unión and unir, all taken from Latin, while the inherited word is uno.^[6][5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan unitat, French unité (about 1120) and Italian unità.^[9][10] ūnus continues Old Latin oinos, from Proto-Italic *oinos and Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one, single”).^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–about 1250), in the heading De vnidat de marido et muger, “on the union of husband and wife”.^[3] The Libro de Apolonio (about 1240), which Corominas cites first, uses it for concord: plogo mucho a todos con esta vnidat “all were much pleased with this concord”.^[6][3] A privilege of 1251 has the theological sense, unidat en essençia “unity in essence” of the Trinity.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for the state of being one, for singularity in number or quality, and for union or agreement; all three senses are in Alfonso X's Libro conplido of about 1254.^[12] Autoridades defined it as the total simplicity and indivisibility of a being, the singularity of number, and in arithmetic the first place on the right, before tens and hundreds.^[13] In 1846 Domínguez and Salvá recorded the three unities of drama (of action, time and place).^[14][15] The mathematical sense of a quantity used as a common measure entered the Academy's dictionary in 1869, and the literary or artistic unity in 1899.^[16][17]

The modern word also names each item of a set (“units” of a product), a section of an institution such as a hospital unit, a military unit, and each carriage or vessel of a train or convoy.^[4][18][19] In Argentina and Uruguay it is a flat in an apartment block.^[20][4]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has vnidat “union”.^[3]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio uses vnidat for concord.^[3][6]
• c. 1250 – Corominas's date of first record.^[5]
• c. 1254 – Alfonso X's astrological Libro conplido uses vnidat for belief in the one God.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin unitas and monas as equivalents.^[7]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the philosophical, numerical and arithmetical senses.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá records the three dramatic unities of action, time and place.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the literary sense.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. unity: the property of a being that cannot be divided without destroying or changing its nature.^[4][1]
2. Singularity in number or quality.^[4]
3. Union, agreement: Los vecinos mostraron gran unidad ante la amenaza.^[4][18]
4. Each of the items in a series or set: una caja de seis unidades.^[4][1]
5. A section of an organization with a particular function, as in a hospital.^[4][19]
6. Each of the vehicles or carriages that make up a convoy or train.^[4]
7. The quality of a literary or artistic work that has a single main subject or idea.^[4]
8. (mathematics) A quantity taken as a standard of measure for others of its kind; the number one.^[4][18]
9. (military) A unit, a part of an armed force, independent or forming part of a larger one.^[4][1]
10. (Argentina, Uruguay) A flat in a building.^[4][20]

Related words

• un
• uno
• unir
• unión
• único
• unitario
• Latin ūnitās

Usage notes

Set phrases include unidad de cuidados intensivos “intensive care unit” (abbreviated UCI), unidad monetaria “monetary unit” and unidad astronómica “astronomical unit”.^[1][18][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. unidad
3. ^ 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. unidad
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. unidad
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. uno
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 715
7. ^ 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. unidad
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 811
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b 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. unidad
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 389
14. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1688
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1087
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 774
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 995
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. unidad
19. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. unidad
20. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. unidad