universidad

Forms

universidad f (plural universidades)^[1] Old Spanish wrote universidat, uniuersidat, vniuersidat and universsidat.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish universidat, borrowed from Medieval Latin universitas (“university; corporation”).^[1][4][5] In classical Latin the noun meant “the whole, totality”, later also “a body of people, a guild”; the medieval sense was taken in Bologna and Paris from the end of the 12th century, from the phrase for “the community of the students”.^[4][6][7][5] The Latin noun was formed from ūniversus (“whole, entire”) with the suffix -tās, and the adjective from ūnus (“one”) and versus (“turned”), the past participle of vertō (“to turn”).^[1][8][5]

The same Latin word is Catalan universitat, Italian università and French université.^[9][10] Tagalog unibersidad was borrowed from Spanish.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary (1490), in the sense “universality”, and universidad de estudio in 1505.^[6][10] The CDH has much earlier records: around 1250 the Aragonese Vidal Mayor glosses Latin universitatis with uniuersidat, and in 1254 a letter of Alfonso X speaks of los escolares de la vniuersidat del estudio de Salamanca “the scholars of the university of the Studium of Salamanca”.^[3] Here the word still names the corporation of the scholars.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General estoria also uses it for “a whole, the entirety”.^[11] The Partidas speak of the messenger that la universidad de los escolares must have, the beadle.^[12] Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495) separates the totality of things, rendered universitas, from the place of study, rendered gymnasium and academia.^[13]

Autoridades put first “the whole of created things”, then the body of masters and pupils under a rector, and the place where it is established.^[12] The Academy's 1843 edition added a group of allied towns.^[14] In the Americas the word named the community of a town from the 1530s: in 1534 the vezinos e unyversydad of Lima made a petition.^[15] Monlau (1856) noted that a word for any corporation had come to mean almost only the teaching bodies.^[16] The adjective universitario entered the Academy's dictionary in the 19th century.^[6]

Andalusia has universidad de párrocos for the parish clergy of a town, and Cuba universidad de la calle for the experience gained in everyday life.^[17][18]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – in Aragonese, the Vidal Mayor has uniuersidat.^[3]
• 1254 – a letter of Alfonso X names the vniuersidat of the scholars of Salamanca.^[3]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for “the whole”.^[11]
• 1490 – Corominas's first record, in Alfonso de Palencia.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders the place of study as gymnasium and academia.^[13]
• 1505 – universidad de estudio in Pedro de Alcalá.^[6]
• 1534 – the community of the town of Lima.^[15]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the sense “group of allied towns”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A university: an institution of higher education made up of several faculties, which confers academic degrees: Estudió Medicina en la Universidad de Granada.^[4][1]
2. The building or buildings of a university.^[4][19]
3. A body of people forming a corporation.^[4]
4. The whole of created things.^[4]
5. Universality (universalidad).^[4]
6. (historical) A public institution for the higher study of sciences and letters, with authority to confer degrees.^[4]
7. (historical) A group of towns or districts united by common interests under one legal representation (universidad de villa y tierra).^[4][19]

Word family

• universitario

Related words

• universo
• universal
• universalidad
• uno
• verter
• Latin ūniversitās

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
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. universidad
5. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. universitat
10. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 392
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
15. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
16. ^ Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica
17. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. universidad