vivaz

Forms

vivaz m or f (masculine and feminine plural vivaces)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vīvāx (“long-lived, lively”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] García de Diego notes that the Castilian adjective is learned, while Old Catalan had a popular outcome of the same Latin word, Old Catalan ivatz.^[5] The adjective is formed from Latin vīvō (“to live”) + -āx (“inclined to”).^[1][6] The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan vivaç, French vivace, Italian vivace and Portuguese vivaz.^[7][8][1]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Italic *gʷīwe- (“to live”) and Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃-u- (“to live”).^[9] The verb gave Spanish vivir, and the adjective vīvus gave vivo.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is a bare list of epithets, the anonymous Selva de epítetos of about 1500, where vivaz stands among adjectives for a personified quality.^[10] Corominas dates the word 1515 in the Breve diccionario and 1555 in the larger dictionary, where the first source is Andrés Laguna's translation of Dioscorides.^[3][4] Autoridades quotes Laguna's passage on a plant whose root is so vivaz y durable “long-lived and lasting” that it can be carried five hundred leagues and still be planted: the sense of long life and vigour.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word was mostly poetic: the CDH has it in Góngora's romances, of the cork oak, and in Villamediana, of fame;^[10] Duque de Estrada wrote of a horse's vivaces ojos “lively eyes”.^[10] Autoridades (1739) gave the senses “effective, vigorous” and, of a person, “sharp, quick-witted”.^[11] The Academy's 1843 edition added plants that keep their green all year, and Salvá in 1846 the botanical sense of plants that live more than two years though their stems are renewed.^[12][13] The general sense “that lives a long time” was first listed by the Academy in 1899.^[14] The DLE now adds “lively, full of vivacity”, and in botany defines a perennial plant whose parts above ground die back in the unfavourable season.^[2][15]

In the New Kingdom of Granada a poet of 1588 used the Italian-looking form vivace (como vivace ciervo fatigado “like a lively, weary stag”).^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – the noun vivacidad is recorded, earlier than the adjective.^[3][4]
• c. 1500 – the Selva de epítetos lists vivaz among its epithets.^[10]
• 1515 – first date in Corominas's Breve diccionario.^[3][17]
• 1555 – Laguna's Dioscorides uses it of a long-lived root.^[4][11]
• 1588 – the form vivace appears in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[16]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as “effective, vigorous” and “sharp, ingenious”.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the sense of evergreen plants.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin and the sense “long-lived”.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Long-lived; living a long time.^[2][18]
2. Effective, vigorous.^[2][18]
3. Sharp and quick to understand; witty.^[2][18]
4. lively, vivacious, full of energy: Tiene una mirada vivaz.^[2][1][19]
5. (botany) Of a plant: perennial, with parts above ground that die back in the unfavourable season.^[2][18]

Word family

• vivacidad

Related words

• vivir
• vivo
• Latin vīvāx
• French vivace

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. vivaz
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vivo
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 834
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7246
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uīuax
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vivaç
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vivace
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. ^ 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. vivaz
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 507
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 749
13. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1121
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1026
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. vivaz
16. ^ a b 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. vivace
17. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 847
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vivaz
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vivaz