{
  "id": "diccionario-de-autoridades-1726",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Diccionario de autoridades, tomo primero (Real Academia Española, Madrid, 1726)",
  "summary": "The first dictionary of Spanish to prove every word with a quotation from a named book, begun by an academy founded in 1713 and printed at the king's expense. Its list of vouching authors is where the American connection is visible: Acosta on the Indies is the second entry in the whole list, beside Bernal Díaz, Oviedo, Ovalle's Chile and a nautical manual printed at Mexico. Its limit is visible on the same sheets — \"aguacate\" in 1726 means an inferior emerald.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "language",
    "spanish-language",
    "linguistics",
    "books",
    "printing",
    "literature",
    "spain",
    "madrid",
    "eighteenth-century",
    "americas",
    "enlightenment"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "covarrubias-tesoro-1611"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "nebrija-gramatica-1492"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "spanish-language"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "acosta-historia-natural-y-moral-1590"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "oviedo-historia-general-y-natural-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "ovalle-historica-relacion-de-chile"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "garcia-de-palacio-instruccion-nautica-1587"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "palafox-virtudes-del-indio"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "sandoval-naturaleza-policia-1627"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "feijoo-mapa-intelectual-1728"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "lope-de-vega"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What was the Diccionario de autoridades?",
    "When was the Real Academia Española founded, and by whom?",
    "Which authors did the Real Academia Española cite to prove the meaning of Spanish words?",
    "Were American books used as authorities for the Spanish language?",
    "Did the first Spanish academic dictionary include American words?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "The volume read for this entry is the first, \"TOMO PRIMERO. QUE CONTIENE LAS LETRAS A.B.\", whose title page reads \"DICCIONARIO DE LA LENGUA CASTELLANA, EN QUE SE EXPLICA EL VERDADERO SENTIDO DE LAS VOCES, SU NATURALEZA Y CALIDAD, CON LAS PHRASES O MODOS DE HABLAR, LOS PROVERBIOS O REFRANES, Y OTRAS COSAS CONVENIENTES AL USO DE LA LENGUA … COMPUESTO POR LA REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA … En Madrid: En la Imprenta de Francisco del Hierro, Impressor de la Real Académia Española. Año de 1726\". The same page states who paid: it is dedicated to Philip V \"A CUYAS REALES EXPENSAS SE HACE esta obra\".",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "The Prólogo opens with the purpose. \"El principal fin, que tuvo la Real Académia Españóla para su formación, fué hacer un Diccionario copióso y exácto, en que se viesse la grandéza y poder de la Léngua, la hermosúra y fecundidád de sus voces, y que ninguna otra la excede en elegáncia, phrases, y pureza\". The Academy states the competitive motive plainly: the literary world was by then furnished with dictionaries of foreign tongues published \"de un siglo á esta parte\", while Spanish \"quedaba en la mayor obscuridád, pobreza è ignoráncia\".",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "The same prologue names the one book that had stood in the gap and credits it. Until then the only recourse was \"el libro del Thesoro de la Léngua Castellana, ò Españóla, que sacó à luz el año de 1611. Don Sebastian de Covarrubias, y despues reimprimió Gabriel de Leon en el año de 1672. añadido de algunas voces y notas por el Padre Benito Remigio Noidens\". To Covarrubias, the Academy says, \"se le debe la glória de haver dado princípio à obra tan grande\"; his work remained \"aunque loable, defectuósa, por faltarla crecido número de palabras\", and the Academy has formed its dictionary \"venerando el noble pensamiento de Covarrubias, y siguiendole en las voces en que halló proporción y verisimilitúd\".",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "The \"Historia de la Real Académia Españóla\" printed in the front matter dates and attributes the foundation: \"Tuvo princípio la Académia Españóla en el mes de Junio del año de 1713. Su primer Autor, y Fundadór (à quien este cuerpo confiessa agradecido deber el sér) fué el Excelentissimo señor Don Juan Manuel Fernandez Pacheco, Marqués de Villéna, Duque de Escalóna, Mayordomo Mayor del Rey nuestro señor, y Caballero del Toisón de Oro\". The same page records that the founder asked Philip V for licence to form the body, since \"à que debía preceder su Real beneplácito\", and that the king granted it; the first juntas ran to 3 August of that year.",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The method is stated as a rule, not inferred from practice. Paragraph 11 of the Prólogo distinguishes the two uses of a quotation: \"Las citas de los Autóres para comprobación de las voces, en unas se ponen para autoridád, y en otras para exemplo\" — the second class covering words that oblivion \"las ha desterrado de la Léngua\". Where a word needs only to be shown to exist, any national author will serve, \"sin que en estas voces sea su intento calificar la autoridád por precissión del uso, sino por afianzar la voz\"; the chosen authors carry the words vouched for as \"castízas y elegantes\". Paragraph 7 adds that the Academy speaks of etymologies \"con el pulso y moderación que corresponde al peligro de errar\".",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "The inclusion rules are numbered and restrictive, and they are worth reading before calling the book comprehensive. Paragraph 8 defers the vocabulary \"pertenecientes à Artes liberales y mechánicas\" to a separate dictionary to be made later, keeping only what seemed most common. Paragraph 9 admits words \"que se usan freqüentemente en algunas provincias y réinos de España, como en Aragón, Andalucía, Astúrias, Murcia, &c. aunque no son comúnes en Castilla\", but omits those Aragonese words that come from Lemosín and \"no están autorizadas con los Fueros, Leyes, y Ordenanzas de aquel réino\". Paragraph 10 annotates the words of \"la Gerigonza ò Germanía\" from Juan Hidalgo's Vocabulario and from César Oudin's Spanish-French dictionary printed at Brussels in 1625.",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "The American presence in the work is in the authority list rather than in a declared regional category, and it is substantial. The \"Explicación de las abreviaturas de los nombres de Autóres y obras, que ván citados en este primer Tomo\" gives, as its second entry of all, \"ACOST. Hist. Ind. Padre Joseph de Acosta: Historia naturál y morál de Indias\", and on the same page \"CAST. Hist. de Nuev. Esp. Bernál Diaz del Castillo: Historia de Nueva España\". Four pages later stand \"OV. Hist. Chil. Padre Alonso de Ovalle: Historia del Réino de Chile\", \"OVIED. Hist. Ind. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo: Historia de Indias\", \"PALAC. Instr. naut. Diego Garcia de Palácios: Instrucción náutica\", \"PALAF. Don Juan de Palafox: sus Obras\", \"RECOP. DE IND. La Recopilación de las Leyes de Indias\" and \"SANDOV. Hist. de Etiop. Padre Alonso de Sandoval: Historia de Etiópia\". Books written in or about the Indies were being used to prove what Castilian words mean.",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "Those American authorities do ordinary work inside the articles, not ceremonial work. On page 126 the entry AGUACERO (\"La llúvia repentina, è impetuósa que passa luego\") is proved from Argensola on the Moluccas and then from \"ACOST. Hist. Ind. lib.3. cap.8. No dexa con todo esso entre los Trópicos, y en la misma línea de haver aguacéros y súbitas llúvias\"; the entry AGUADA (\"La provisión de agua que se lleva desde el rio ò fuente al navío\") cites Ambrosio de Morales and then \"ACOST. Hist. Ind. lib.3. cap.11\". A Jesuit's natural history of the Indies is being quoted to settle the sense of two everyday Spanish words about rain and water.",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c9",
      "text": "The limit of that Americanism is on the same page, and it is sharp. The article AGUACATE reads in full \"s. m. Lo mismo que esmeralda: y solo se diferéncia en que no es tan perfecta, y en que es de hechúra redonda, ò prolongáda. Lat. Smaragdus, i.\" — in 1726 the Academy's only definition of the word is a gem of lesser quality. The fruit appears on the page only inside the two quotations that follow, Lope de Vega's \"Hypérboles y energías parecen frutas de las Indias como Plátanos y Aguacátes\" and Ovalle's cross of gold \"guarnecida de preciósos y grandes aguacátes\". The American thing entered the dictionary in the citations before it entered the definition.",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c10",
      "text": "What this volume cannot be made to show. It is tomo primero, letters A and B, so nothing here settles how the remaining five volumes of 1729 to 1739 treated American vocabulary, and the counts of Americanisms often quoted for the whole Diccionario cannot be checked from it. The \"Historia de la Académia\" is the Academy's account of itself, printed at royal expense and dedicated to the king who paid, so its praise of the Marqués de Villena is an interested witness even where its dates are not. And paragraph 9, which is the only place the Prólogo declares a regional policy, names Aragón, Andalucía, Asturias and Murcia and no territory across the Atlantic: the Indies enter through the authors cited, not through a stated rule.",
      "sources": [
        "autoridades-1726-t1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "The standard account of this book is one sentence — Spain founded an academy in imitation of the French and made a dictionary — and it is almost never opened. Opened, the 1726 volume answers questions the sentence cannot: which single earlier book the Academy says it is building on and what it says was wrong with it; the numbered rules that let Aragonese in but shut out its Lemosín stratum unless the fueros authorised it; and, above all, the abbreviation list, where Acosta's Historia natural y moral de Indias stands second in the whole roll of authorities beside Bernal Díaz, Oviedo, Ovalle and a nautical manual printed at Mexico in 1587 — books this corpus already holds as objects. The same sheets supply the check on any triumphalist reading: the Academy's only 1726 sense of \"aguacate\" is an inferior emerald, and the fruit survives on the page solely inside a line of Lope's.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-08-16",
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    "name": "Diccionario de autoridades, tomo primero (Real Academia Española, Madrid, 1726)",
    "description": "The first dictionary of Spanish to prove every word with a quotation from a named book, begun by an academy founded in 1713 and printed at the king's expense. Its list of vouching authors is where the American connection is visible: Acosta on the Indies is the second entry in the whole list, beside Bernal Díaz, Oviedo, Ovalle's Chile and a nautical manual printed at Mexico. Its limit is visible on the same sheets — \"aguacate\" in 1726 means an inferior emerald.",
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        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Diccionario de la lengua castellana, en que se explica el verdadero sentido de las voces, su naturaleza y calidad, con las phrases o modos de hablar, los proverbios o refranes, y otras cosas convenientes al uso de la lengua — Tomo Primero, que contiene las letras A.B.",
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    "headline": "Diccionario de autoridades, tomo primero (Real Academia Española, Madrid, 1726)"
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