vacancia

Forms

vacancia f (plural vacancias)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin vacantia, according to the Academy's dictionary.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead treats it as a Spanish formation from vacar with the suffix -ancia.^[1] The Academy itself changed its view: its 1899 edition derived the word from the Spanish verb, and Alemany's dictionary of 1917 already gave the Latin source.^[5][6]

The Latin noun is formed from vacāns, the present participle of vacō (“to be empty, be free”), and is not recorded before the Middle Ages.^[1] Du Cange records it in a Greek–Latin glossary meaning “leisure”, and in a document of 1415 for the revenue of a vacant benefice.^[7] Corominas refers the word to his article on vagar, the inherited Spanish outcome of the same Latin verb.^[8][9] Wiktionary compares French vacance and Catalan vacança.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in the autobiography of Andrés de Alvarado (1669), who writes that in his first vacancia, a period of free time, he began to train in the use of arms.^[11] Autoridades in 1739 defines it as the same as vacante, with a quotation about vacancies of benefices at the papal Curia.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Through the 18th century the word meant a post left unfilled, as Autoridades and Terreros define it.^[12][13] Domínguez in 1846 and the Academy from 1869 to 1884 marked it as obsolete, pointing to vacante and vacación.^{[14][15][16][17]} Echegaray and Barcia likewise called it an obsolete feminine noun.^[18][19] It lived on in the Americas: a 1775 document from New Granada speaks of corregidores appointed en habiendo vacancia, and 19th-century historians of Peru and Chile use it for a vacant government or see.^[20][11] The Academy dropped the label “obsolete” in 1899.^[5] Today it is above all a word of Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina for an unassigned post, and in Ecuador also for a temporary suspension of work in a public institution.^[21] In the Spanish of the United States it is used in the sense of English vacancy, an empty space or post.^[22]

Timeline

• 1669 – first record in the CDH, in Andrés de Alvarado's autobiography, in the sense “free time”.^[11]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as the same as vacante.^[12]
• 1775 – first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[20]
• 1846 – Domínguez marks it as obsolete.^[14]
• 1874 – Ricardo Palma uses it for the vacancy of the viceroyalty in Peru.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy drops the label “obsolete” and derives the word from vacar.^[5]
• 1917 – Alemany derives it from Latin vacantia.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vacancy: a post or job that has not been filled.^[2][4][1]
2. (Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina) In public administration, an unassigned post: Se abrió una vacancia en el juzgado.^[21]
3. (Ecuador) A temporary suspension of work in a public institution.^[21]

Related words

• vacante
• vacación
• vacar
• Medieval Latin vacantia

Usage notes

Moliner gives vacanza as a synonym.^[4] In the Spanish of the United States vacancia is used as a loan translation of English vacancy.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. vacancia
3. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. vacancia
4. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vacancia
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1000
6. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1637
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. 8, 223
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 727
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vagar
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vacança
11. ^ 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. vacancia
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 405
13. ^ 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, 746
14. ^ a b 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, 1696
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1091
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 777
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1067
18. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 645
19. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 321
20. ^ 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, p. s.v. vacancia
21. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. vacancia
22. ^ a b Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 91