viaje

Forms

viaje m (plural viajes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan viatge or Occitan viatge, which continue Latin viāticum (“provisions or money for a journey”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas and Wiktionary favour Catalan, the DLE and Vox leave Catalan and Occitan open.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas calls the word an outsider in Castilian: its sound shape shows it, and its late date confirms it, for Nebrija and the glossaries of about 1400 still lack it, and its rival jornada, usual since Berceo, was far more common until the 16th century.^[2] Prat Sabater counts the final ⟨-e⟩ instead of ⟨-o⟩ among the phonetic signs of a Catalan or Occitan loan.^[6]

The Latin noun is the neuter of the adjective viāticus (“of a journey”) used as a noun, from via (“road, path”) and the suffix -āticus; in Late Latin it came to mean the journey itself.^[1][7] Its inherited French counterpart is voyage.^[8] Spanish took the Latin word again as the learned doublet viático at the beginning of the 17th century.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is the crusade poem ¡Ay, Iherusalem! (c. 1274): „Non les da buen viaje la sagrada mar” “the holy sea does not give them a good voyage”.^[9] The dictionaries of Old Spanish report earlier forms with a query: uiage in Alfonso X's Picatrix, dated 1256?, where a lunar mansion is “good for a journey”, and in the Fuero de Murcia, dated 1246.^[10][11] Corominas's first record is in Juan Ruiz, which the BDELC dates to 1335.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was uncommon until the 16th century; it is already usual in the Quijote, and in the 17th century it is as frequent as jornada.^[2][3] Its derivatives came late: viajar, viajante and viajador first appear in Autoridades, viajero in the Academy's dictionary of 1817.^[2][3] Autoridades defined viage as a journey by sea or land, also the road taken and a particular manner of walking.^[12] By 1843 the Academy also gave the senses “a trip carrying a load”, “the load carried at one time” and “the share of water piped from a reservoir”, and the farewell ¡buen viaje!, also said in contempt of something lost.^[13] In 1869 it added “an account or book of travels”.^[14]

The slang sense “trip on a hallucinogenic drug” and the nautical “headway of a ship” are recent additions.^[4][15] Regional uses include “a great quantity” in the Canaries, Andalusia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, and “time, occasion” in Aragon and the Caribbean (otro viaje “another time”).^{[16][1][17][18]} In Argentina viajar is used where other countries say ir “to go”.^[2] Tagalog and other languages of the Philippines borrowed it as biyahe.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1274 – buen viaje in the poem ¡Ay, Iherusalem!.^[9]
• before 1284 – a pilgrim swears “on his journey” (sobre su viage) in the Libro de los fueros de Castiella.^[9]
• 1335 – the BDELC's date of first record, in Juan Ruiz.^[3][2]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines viaje as “la jornada”.^[20]
• 1739 – Autoridades records viage with the derivatives viajar and viajante.^[12][3]
• 1843 – the Academy records ¡buen viaje! and the senses of load and of piped water.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from vía.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. journey, voyage: the act of travelling, and a move from one place to another by air, sea or land.^[4][1]
2. The route along which a journey is made.^[4]
3. A single trip to somewhere, especially carrying a load: Tardamos cuatro viajes en subir los muebles.^[4][22]
4. The load carried at one time: un viaje de arena.^[4][22]
5. Water brought from a spring or reservoir by an aqueduct or pipes to supply a town.^[4]
6. (slang) A trip: the state produced by a hallucinogenic drug.^[4][1]
7. (nautical) The headway or speed of a vessel.^[4]
8. (colloquial, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Canary Islands, Andalusia) A great number or quantity of something.^{[4][17][16][1]}

Word family

• viajar
• viajero
• viajante

Related words

• viático
• vía
• jornada
• Latin viāticum
• Catalan viatge
• French voyage

Usage notes

¡Buen viaje! wishes a traveller a good journey and, ironically, says that one does not care if someone leaves or something is lost.^[22][13] The DLE has a second viaje, from Catalan biaix (“slant”): in architecture the obliquity of a wall or vault, recorded since Autoridades, and in colloquial Spanish a slash with a knife, a sudden blow or attack, and the sudden charge of a bull.^[23][24][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 197
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vía
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. viaje
5. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. viaje
6. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 158
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. viaje
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. viaje
10. ^ 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. viaje
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. viaje
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 473
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 741
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 791
15. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. viaje
16. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. viaje
17. ^ 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. viaje
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. viaje
19. ^ 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. viaje
20. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1383
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1086
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. viaje
23. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 799
24. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. viaje