victoria

Forms

victoria f (plural victorias)^[1] Until the Golden Age the word was mostly written vitoria;^[2] Autoridades says it was often pronounced so, softening the Latin form.^[3][2] Cervantes writes vitoria in the Quijote.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin victōria (“victory”), from victor (“conqueror”).^[3][5][6][1] Autoridades already called it “a purely Latin word”.^[2]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese vitória, Galician vitoria and French victoire.^[7][8][1]

victor is from vincō (“to conquer”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *winkō (“to tie, bind”) and Proto-Indo-European *wi-n-k- (“to bend, tie”).^[9][10] Spanish vencer is the inherited verb of the same root.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is the Liber Regum (1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century): leuolos todos catiuos a Roma por mostrar so uictoria “he took them all captive to Rome to show his victory”.^[11] Corominas's first record is Berceo, in the Sacrificio de la Misa: quando de la fazienda tornava con victoria “when he came back from the battle with victory”.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word of military victory and of the triumph that God grants, as in Berceo's A Abram dio victoria “He gave Abraham victory”.^[11] Nebrija (c. 1495) glosses it as vencimiento and Latin palma.^[13] Autoridades defines it as advantage gained over the enemy in battle, by extension in a dispute, and in a moral sense the mastering of vices and passions.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 adds cantar victoria “to boast of one's triumph” and the cry ¡victoria!.^[14]

Victoria regia names the giant water lily of South American rivers in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.^[6][15]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – uictoria in the Liber Regum (early 13th-century copy).^[11]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the first record for Corominas.^[3][5]
• 1254 – the plural uictorias in the prose of Alfonso X.^[16][17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it as vencimiento.^[13]
• 1538 – the first record from the Americas, as vitoria, in Buenos Aires.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades calls it a purely Latin word.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary has cantar victoria.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. victory, advantage gained over an opponent in a dispute or contest: una victoria por dos goles.^[6][1]
2. The mastering of vices or passions.^[19][20]

Interjection

1. ¡Victoria!, a cry hailing a victory over the enemy.^[6]

Related words

• invicto
• vencer
• victorioso
• vítor
• Latin victōria

Usage notes

Cantar victoria is to rejoice in or boast of a victory.^[6] A separate word victoria, a light open carriage with two seats and a folding hood, is named after Queen Victoria of England, who first used it;^[19] Corominas dates it to about 1900, and the Academy added it in 1936.^[19][5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 478
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 768
4. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1156
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vencer
6. ^ a b c d e 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. victoria
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3524
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. victoire
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 725
11. ^ 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. victoria
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 790
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 430
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1087
15. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. victoria
16. ^ 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. victoria
17. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. victoria
18. ^ 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. victoria
19. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. victoria
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. victoria