vanguardia

Forms

vanguardia f (plural vanguardias)^[1] Avanguardia, recorded about 1375, was the usual form until the first half of the 17th century, alternating with avanguarda in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 already preferred vanguardia.^[2][3] Medieval texts also have vanguarda and avantguarda.^[4] Moliner lists avanguardia, manguardia and vanguarda as variants.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish avanguardia, borrowed from Catalan avantguarda (“vanguard”), and was later modified under the influence of Italian vanguardia.^[2][3] The Catalan word, recorded from the end of the 14th century, is formed with avant (“before”) and guarda (“guard”).^[3][2] The Catalan adverb is from Late Latin ab ante (“before, in front of”), and the family of guardar goes back to a Germanic verb, Proto-Germanic *wardāną (“to guard”).^[1][2]

Prat Sabater counts it among the Catalanisms of Spanish.^[6] The DLE and Wiktionary instead explain the Old Spanish word as Spanish, formed from aván, a shortening of avante, and guardia.^[7][1] retaguardia has the same history: Old Spanish reguarda came from Catalan reraguarda, and was modified in the 16th century after retroguardia.^[2][3]

Italian avanguardia itself is borrowed, according to Nocentini, from French avant-garde.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in a manuscript of its own time is in the Sumas de la historia troyana of Leomarte, of about 1350: Ca tenja la vanguarda delavna costanera “for he held the vanguard of one of the wings”.^[4] Corominas dates the form avanguardia from about 1375.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 explained the word as if from avantiguardia, “the guard in front”: the first squadron of an army, which faces the enemy, as the retaguarda is the one that marches last.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the front of the army, explained it by avante “forward” and guarda “guard”, and added that the old form was avanguardia.^[10] Terreros also knew a sense in bridge-building.^[11]

Domínguez in 1846 already noted a figurative use.^[12] The Academy recorded the phrase a vanguardia “in the lead, ahead of the rest” in 1869.^[13] The sense of the leading group of an artistic, literary or political movement, the avant-garde, is in the DLE and Moliner, who also gives de vanguardia for such movements; in the plural the word can mean vanguardismo.^[7][5] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1515, on the Tierra Firme coast, in both forms.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – the Sumas de la historia troyana of Leomarte have vanguarda.^[4]
• c. 1375 – the form avanguardia.^[2][3]
• before 1412 – Pablo de Santa María writes auanguardia of the Cid's army.^[4]
• 1441–1486 – Diego de Valera writes avantguarda.^[4]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, with avanguardia and vanguardia.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias has vanguardia, the BDELC's date for the modern form.^[9][3]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the old form avanguardia.^[10]
• 1869 – the Academy records a vanguardia.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from avanguardia.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) The vanguard: the part of an armed force that goes ahead of the main body: La vanguardia cruzó el río antes del alba.^[7][1]
2. The avant-garde: the leading group of an ideological, political, literary or artistic movement: la vanguardia poética de los años veinte.^[7][5][1]
3. (in the plural) vanguardismo, the avant-garde movements.^[7]
4. (in the plural) The places on the banks of a river where the works of a bridge or dam begin.^[7][5]

Word family

• vanguardismo

Related words

• avanzada
• retaguardia
• guardia
• avante
• Catalan avantguarda
• Italian avanguardia

Usage notes

A vanguardia, a la vanguardia or en vanguardia means “in the lead, in the most advanced position”.^[7] De vanguardia is said of the most advanced movements of an age.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 246
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guardar
4. ^ 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, p. s.v. vanguardia
5. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vanguardia
6. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 61
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vanguardia
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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. 1370
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 419
11. ^ 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, 754
12. ^ 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, 1705
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 780
14. ^ 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. avanguarda
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1071