vibración

Forms

vibración f (plural vibraciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vibrātiō (“a brandishing, shaking”), a noun of action from vibrō (“to move rapidly to and fro, brandish”).^[2][1][3][4] Spanish analyses it as vibrar with -ción;^[1] Corominas dates the verb to 1599, with an isolated example in 1438, and the noun to 1739.^[1][5][6] The same Latin word gave Portuguese vibração, Catalan vibració, French vibration and Italian vibrazione.^[1][3][7]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from Proto-Italic *wib-ro- (“trembling”), from Proto-Indo-European *uip/b-ro-;^[8][1] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to oscillate, swing”) or *weyb-, since the final consonant is unclear.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in volume III of Feijoo's Teatro crítico universal (1729), on strings in unison, whose vibraciones have equal duration.^[9] Corominas's first record is the Diccionario de Autoridades (1739), which defines it in statics as the free swinging of a suspended body back and forth until it comes to rest.^[5][6][10]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with 18th-century science: Feijoo used it of springs and of the fibres of the body, and Luzán explained musical harmony by the ratio of the vibraciones of sounding bodies.^[9] In 1899 the Academy defined it as the action and effect of vibrating and as each vibratory movement, the double oscillation of the molecules or of the vibrating body, the definition the DLE keeps.^[11][2] Physics now gives it a precise sense, the periodic motion of a particle about its point of equilibrium.^[12] In building it is the compaction of concrete by shaking, and in the colloquial plural vibraciones are the feelings that a person or place gives off, as in buenas vibraciones.^[13]

Timeline

• 1729 – Feijoo's Teatro crítico universal, volume III.^[9]
• 1737 – Luzán's Poética explains consonance by the ratio of vibrations.^[9]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades, Corominas's first record.^[5][6][10]
• 1793 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the Latin etymology and the definition still current.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. vibration: the action and effect of vibrating (vibrar): Se notaba la vibración del motor en el volante.^[2][12][1]
2. (physics) Each to-and-fro movement of a vibrating body or of its molecules; a periodic oscillation about a point of equilibrium.^[2][12]
3. (building) The compaction of concrete by shaking it while it sets.^[13]
4. (colloquial, in the plural) vibes: the feelings that someone or something gives off.^[13]

Related words

• Latin vibrātiō
• French vibration

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. vibración
3. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 702
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vibratio
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 803
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vibrar
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vibração
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. vibración
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. vibración
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1017
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vibración
13. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vibración
14. ^ 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. vibración