vizconde

Forms

vizconde m (plural vizcondes, feminine vizcondesa, feminine plural vizcondesas)^[1] Old Spanish texts spell it bizcomde, bizconde, vizconde, bizcuende, vizcuende, vezconde, veçconde and vizconte, the forms in -cuende with the old diphthong of cuende “count”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin vicecomes (“deputy of a count”), according to Corominas.^[3][4] The DLE and Wiktionary analyse it as from Spanish viz- + conde, the second part being the old title conde “count”.^[5][1] The Medieval Latin word is formed from vice (“in place of”) and comes (“companion; count”).^[1][6]

The same title is Catalan vescomte, French vicomte and Italian visconte.^[7][1][8] Niermeyer defines the Latin title as the count's permanent delegate for the whole county.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Castilian record is in Alfonso X's Libro de las cruces (1259), spelt bezconde: an astrological judgement says the king will take prisoner some great man of his knights, assi como rich hombre, conde o bezconde “such as a rich man, a count or a viscount”.^[10] Corominas gives the Siete Partidas as the first source, where the law defines the word: Vizconde tanto quiere decir como Oficial, que tiene lugar de Conde “viscount means an officer who holds the place of a count”.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias (1611) defined it only as a title below count.^[12] Autoridades (1739) gave both: in the past, the man a count left as his lieutenant, especially as governor of a province; in its own day, a title of honour granted by the king as a reward for merit.^[11] The Academy listed the feminine vizcondesa in 1817, both as the viscount's wife and as a woman holding the title herself.^[13] The DLE now gives the noble title first, then the consort, and marks the deputy of a count as a historical sense.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1130 – DEMel's earliest record, vesconte, in a document of the reconquest of the Ebro valley.^[2]
• 1256–1263 – the Siete Partidas define the office.^[3][11]
• 1259 – bezconde in the Libro de las cruces of Alfonso X.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin equivalent vice comes.^[15][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a title below count.^[12]
• 1701 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1739 – Autoridades distinguishes the old office from the modern title.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds vizcondesa.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. viscount: a noble whose title ranks immediately below that of conde.^[5][1][17]
2. The husband of a vizcondesa (the feminine is the wife of a viscount).^[5]
3. (historical) The man who acted as a count's deputy or substitute.^[5][14]

Word family

• vizcondesa
• vizcondado

Related words

• conde
• Medieval Latin vicecomes
• French vicomte

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vizconde
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 170
4. ^ a b 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. vizconde
5. ^ 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. vizconde
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. vicecomes
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vescomte
8. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 816
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. vicecomes
10. ^ a b 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. vizconde
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, 511
12. ^ 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. 1394
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 898
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vizconde
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 431
16. ^ 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. vizconde
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vizconde