vista

Forms

vista f (plural vistas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a noun from Spanish ver (“to see”): the feminine of the past participle visto, used as a noun.^[2][3][4] The Academy's dictionaries from 1884 derived it from the participle.^[5] The present one traces it instead to a Late Latin *vista, formed from the Latin verb, and Wiktionary to a Vulgar Latin *visita.^[6][1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of the verb, from the Cid on.^[7][8] French vue is the same formation, the feminine participle of voir used as a noun.^[2]

The verb continues Latin videō (“to see”), through Old Spanish veer.^[7][9] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Italic *widēō, from the root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know, see”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the plural vistas for the meeting between the Cid and the king: Estas vistas ó las ayades vós “where you are to hold this meeting”.^[10][7] Around 1200 the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses a la vista de Mambre “in sight of Mamre”, and Berceo in the 13th century uses the word for sight and for the act of seeing someone.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish unas vistas was the usual word for a meeting or interview until French entrevue gave entrevista, in the Academy's dictionary from 1817.^[7] Covarrubias in 1611 explained ir a vistas as the meeting of a couple about to marry, and listed en vista y revista and por vista de ojos as legal terms.^[11] The legal sense survives as the hearing in which the parties set out their case before a court.^[6]

Autoridades opened its entry with the faculty of seeing, then the act of seeing and the way one looks.^[12] From 1817 the Academy also gave the landscape seen from a point (often in the plural), the eyes themselves and a meeting, as in hasta la vista.^[13][14] Later editions added the picture of a place and clear knowledge or insight.^[15][6] In 1855 Baralt condemned golpe de vista as a gallicism.^[16] In Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru the plural means “eyes”, especially big ones, in popular speech.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses vistas for a meeting.^[10][7]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has a la vista de “in sight of”.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin visus and visio as its equivalents.^[18]
• 1519 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: por vista de oxos “by eyesight”.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records ir a vistas and the legal phrases.^[11]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines the faculty of sight first.^[12]
• 1817 – entrevista enters the Academy's dictionary, replacing vistas.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from visto.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. sight, eyesight: the sense by which the eyes perceive things through light.^[6][1]
2. The organs of sight, the eyes: Leer con poca luz cansa la vista.^[6][20]
3. The act of seeing; sight of something: La vista del mar lo tranquilizó.^[6][1]
4. Appearance, the way something looks.^[6][1]
5. A view or panorama seen from a place, also in the plural: un piso con vistas al río.^[6][1]
6. A painting or photograph of a place or monument.^[6]
7. Clear knowledge of things; insight, foresight;^[6][1] tener vista, to be shrewd.^[6][1]
8. Aim, intention; the part of something left visible, such as the facings of a coat.^[6]
9. (law) A hearing before a judge or court in which the parties state their case.^[6][1]
10. (in the plural) A meeting of two or more people for a purpose.^[6]
11. (computing) A view, a layout of information on the screen.^[1]

Word family

• avistar
• vistazo
• vistilla

Related words

• proveer
• ver
• visible
• visión
• visitar
• visto
• visual
• entrevista
• revista
• Latin videō
• French vue

Usage notes

Set phrases include a primera vista “at first sight”, hacer la vista gorda “to turn a blind eye” and hasta la vista “see you”.^[1][6] In Andalusia hacer la vista larga is recorded as the opposite of hacer la vista gorda.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. vista
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 729
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vista
5. ^ 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. 1094
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. vista
7. ^ 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, 713
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ver
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7161
10. ^ 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. vista
11. ^ 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. 1379
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 503
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 896
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 747
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1667
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 727
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. vista
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 431
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. vista
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vista
21. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 651