vigilante

Forms

vigilante m or f (masculine and feminine plural vigilantes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vigilans (“watchful, wakeful”), the present participle of vigilāre (“to stay awake, keep watch”), a learned word that the BDELC and Segura date to about 1580.^[2][1][3][4] Bénaben treats it as the present participle of vigilar, made an adjective and a noun.^[5] Corominas lists it among the learned relatives of velar, the inherited outcome of the same Latin verb, beside the learned verb, first recorded in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[6]

The same Latin participle gave Catalan vigilant, French vigilant, Italian vigilante and Portuguese vigilante.^[1][7][8] The Latin participle already meant “wakeful, watchful”, of watchmen, and “alert” in general.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Castilian hits in the CDH are 15th-century religious texts: Teresa de Cartagena's Arboleda de los enfermos (1455–1460) quotes the saying Bienaventurado aquel siervo que quando viniere el Señor suyo le hallare vigilante “blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he comes, finds watchful”.^[10] Alfonso Martínez de Toledo's life of Saint Isidore (before 1444, known from a 16th-century copy) calls the saint a cuidadoso y vigilante labrador “careful and watchful labourer”.^[10] DICCA-XV dates the word 1458–1467 and reports a first CORDE hit of 1414.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Until the 19th century the word was mainly an adjective, “awake” and “careful, attentive”, as Autoridades defined it in 1739 with examples from Quevedo and Solís.^[12] The Academy's 1869 edition added cuarto vigilante, a military term for the part of a guard kept under arms, and the 1884 edition the noun “person in charge of watching over something”.^[13][14]

In Spain a vigilante jurado is a private security guard.^[2][15] In Argentina the noun has meant a police officer since at least 1910, and in Ecuador it is a traffic policeman.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1455–1460 – Teresa de Cartagena writes le hallare vigilante in the Arboleda de los enfermos.^[10]
• 1575 – the first records from the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the present participle of vigilar, “one who keeps awake”, and as “careful, attentive”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the noun “person in charge of watching over something” and an etymology from Latin vigilans.^[14]
• 1910 – Garzón records the Argentine noun “policeman”.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. watchful, vigilant: keeping watch, alert.^[2][1]
2. awake, wakeful: Pasó la noche vigilante junto al enfermo.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A guard or watchman: a person in charge of watching over a place or a thing.^[2][15][1]
2. A police officer, especially in Argentina.^[2][17]
3. (freemasonry) Each of two of the four officers who assist the master of a lodge.^[15]

Related words

• vigilar
• vigilancia
• velar
• vigilia
• vigía
• Latin vigilans

Usage notes

Vigilante has one form for both genders: el vigilante, la vigilante.^[2][1] In Argentina and Uruguay it is also short for postre vigilante, a dessert.^[17][1] In the Río de la Plata it also names a roll of puff pastry, often topped with quince paste or custard.^[1]

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 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. vigilante
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. velar
4. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 839
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. vigilante
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 757
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vigilant
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vigilante
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vigilans
10. ^ 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. vigilante
11. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. vigilante
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 485
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 794
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. 1089
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vigilante
16. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 504
17. ^ 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. vigilante
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. vigilante