universo

Forms

universo m (plural universos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin ūniversum (“the whole of things, the universe”), the noun use of the neuter of ūniversus (“whole, entire; all together”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun rendered the philosophical term Ancient Greek τὸ ὅλον (tò hólon, “the whole”).^[3][6]

The adjective is a compound of ūnus (“one”) and versus (“turned”), the past participle of vertō (“to turn”), so that it meant “turned into one, combined into one whole”.^[7][8][3] Old Latin wrote the plural ⟨oinuorsei⟩.^[8] The Spanish word thus belongs to the family of verter, under which the DCECH treats it.^[2][9]

The same learned borrowing is Catalan univers, French univers, Italian universo and Portuguese universo.^[10][6][11] In French the adjective came first (about 1175) and the noun only about 1530.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH finds the word first in the Corbacho, in Alfonso de la Torre and in Juan de Mena;^[2][12] DICCA-XV dates the Corbacho record to 1438.^[2][12] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glosses universus as “whole, in all its parts”, but his Spanish–Latin vocabulary has no entry for universo.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, “universal”, survives in the phrase universo mundo, “the whole world”, recorded in Mexico in 1548.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the adjective as equal to universal and the noun as the whole of created things, a word of wider reach than mundo.^[14] Terreros adds a narrower sense, the whole globe, all men and nations, which the earliest records from the Americas show in formulas wishing the king rule over the universo.^[15][13]

Today the noun means everything that exists physically, the cosmos, and by extension the world of ideas or feelings of an activity or a person, as in el universo poético of a writer.^[16][9][5] Statistics uses it for the whole set of individuals under study.^[5]

Timeline

• 1438 – first record, in the Corbacho.^[2][12]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin universus.^[12]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the adjective and the noun.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin universus.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (formal) universal.^[5][9]

Noun

1. The universe, the world: everything that exists, the planets, stars and space that contains them: La luz de esa galaxia tardó millones de años en cruzar el universo.^[5][1]
2. The whole of the ideas, feelings or things that belong to an activity or a person: el universo de un pintor.^[16][9]
3. (statistics) The set of individuals or elements whose characteristics are studied; the population.^[5]

Related words

• universal
• universidad
• verter
• uno
• Latin ūniversus
• French univers

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 709
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. universo
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. universo
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. univers
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ūniversus
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. universo
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. univers
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. universo
12. ^ a b c d e 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. universo
13. ^ a b c 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. universo
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 392
15. ^ 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, 738
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. universo
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 996