Criticisms of the Royal Spanish Academy for being xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic and any other accusation of inciting hatred or rejection of a group are frequent, especially when there are changes in the dictionary. It is usually accused of including meanings that are offensive to dignity.
Perhaps this accusation arises from the widespread custom of not reading the prologues, preambles, introductions, notices and warnings that precede dictionaries. Precisely, in the preamble of the latest edition of the academic dictionary, the Tercentenary, it is stated:
“The corporation […] It tries to assess the definitions as much as possible so that they do not become gratuitously biased or offensive, but it cannot always accept some proposals for deletion, since the meanings involved have been until recently or are still perfectly valid in the social community.
Would it be appropriate to eliminate them so that no speaker knows them and, thus, avoid using them? The preamble of the Dictionary of the Spanish Language answers:
«In the same way that language serves many purposes, including some aimed at disqualifying others or their behaviors, it reflects beliefs and perceptions that have been and to some extent continue to be present in the community. Naturally, by expressing them in a dictionary the lexicographer is doing an exercise in truthfulness, he is reflecting effective linguistic uses, but he is neither inciting anyone to any disqualification nor lending his acquiescence to the corresponding beliefs or perceptions.
The dictionary is not the moral work that prescribes what words to use; It is not a catechism, nor a book of good manners, although the Academy, in the same preamble, recognizes that “there is the naive pretension that the dictionary can be used to alter reality.” The dictionary reflects the society that uses the language, its virtues and vices, its goodness and badness, and its changes. That is why it varies, reflecting outputs and inputs of words and meanings, according to the use of the speakers.
Words to define the concept
Now, on the occasion of LGTBI+ Pride Day, we look at how the RAE addresses homosexuality, which the dictionary defines as “erotic inclination towards individuals of the same sex”, including lesbianism ‘female homosexuality’ and uranism ‘male homosexuality’.
The two terms have classical origins, although the idyllic overtones of antiquity soon come face to face with the definition of Uranism in the Alemany and Bolufer dictionary (1917). First it is included as a pathology; It is used, “mainly, in legal medicine.” Then it is said that it is a “sexual inversion” without physical origin, pure perversion, without the genital organs presenting a “conformation vice.”
In the dictionaries of the RAE there are different words for the homosexual man: bujarra, bujarrón, gay, homosexual, marica, faggot, sissy and sarasa. And also effeminate, dyke, inverted, lesbian and dyke. The latter appear with gender variation, with masculine and feminine forms.
The first to appear, in the Dictionary of Authorities (1726 and 1734), are effeminate, bujarrón, marica, faggot and inverted. In 1803 ladybug emerged. And in the 20th century, sarasa (1925), bujarra (1927), homosexual (1936) and gay (1984). They are all still there, except Bujarra, which disappeared in 1992. This does not mean that the inclusion in the dictionary coincides with the moment of its appearance in the Spanish language; The endorsement of the dictionary occurs after verification of its frequent use.
But lesbianism also receives derogatory terms, although fewer and later. The first appearance of lesbian occurs in the academic dictionary supplement of 1970 and refers to lesbian love: “homosexual love between women.” Tortillera was added in 1985 and bllera in 1989. Both are marked as “vulgar.”
Definitions that change over time
But not only the incorporations or disappearances of words in lexicography are interesting. So are the definitions and examples that emerge.
In 1726, in the Dictionary of Authorities, no definition that refers to sexuality is used for effeminate, but it is assimilated to the feminine, inferior to the masculine: “Inclined, and reduced to the genius and way of acting and speaking of women.” […]. The t. Weakness Imbecillis. Infirmus.
Homosexual, in 1936, defined himself as a “sodomite”, and this continued until 1956; In 1950 he is the one who “seeks carnal pleasures with people of the same sex.”
In 1989, effeminate and homosexual were identified and a meaning appeared that brought homosexuality closer to vice: “Inclined to pleasure, dissolute.” And Spanish society still linked homosexuality and perversion: in 1995 the Arny case broke out, a trial of prostitution of minors in a bar in Seville in which the accused, all of them homosexual men, and some famous, were accused without evidence. and tried in the media, although the majority would eventually be acquitted.
The weak will that the authorities associate with women is found in the definitions of marica and maricón. Marica is an easily manipulated man: “an effeminate man with little energy, who allows himself to be subjugated and manipulated.” In 1803 he was described as a man “with little spirit and effort” and in 1984, “homosexual, inverted.” Since 1992, marica is an “insult used with or without the meaning of effeminate and homosexual man.”
Maricón is also not free from the supposed feminine apathy: for the Authorities he is an “effeminate and cowardly man.” In 1884 he added “sodomite”, and in 1970, “inverted”. Not satisfied, in 1984 he is a “despicable and undesirable person.” In 1992 he kept his voice, but at least it was indicated that it was a “rude insult.” And the bujarrón is “vile and infamous man, who actively commits heinous sin” (1726).
In short, academic dictionaries, from Authorities to the Tercentenary edition, incorporate and lose words and definitions related to homosexuality: the Academy does not establish itself as the creator of linguistic behaviors, but as a reflection of the actions of the speakers.
Language is not a static entity; On the contrary, it is one of the most dynamic realities that we know and, as such, it changes depending on the evolution of the society that uses it. Precisely for this reason the RAE makes periodic editions of its dictionary: the objective is to reflect how the language varies depending on social changes; and the perception of homosexuality does not escape this transformation and therefore leaves its reflection in the lexicographic treatment.
This article was published in ‘The Conversation’.
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