The word verbigracia comes from Latin and means "for example", although it is also used to quote an event or text that indicates the certainty of a hit. Its use is not very common in everyday speech nor is it frequently used in journalistic notes, but it is more likely that we will find it in literary or academic texts. Therefore, we can say that it is a cult term, but also versatile. Let's see.
When consulting with the Royal Spanish Academy, we found that it defines, for example, an adverb and that it means "example", whose use is formal; However, there are also occasions when it is used as a masculine noun, something that we will see later.
Source Pixabay.com
This word comes from the Latin «verbi gratia», composed of «verbi» which comes from the neuter noun «verbum» and which means «word». For its part, the preposition "gratia" can be understood as "grace." Thus the textual translation would be "by grace of the word", which was Spanishized to a single word: for example.
The first time it entered the RAE Usual Dictionary was in the 18th century, more precisely in the year 1780. Since then it is possible to find it in scientific, legal or medical texts, even in its expression in Latin, which is also accepted for your use. Furthermore, it is usual in them that it is also cited in an abbreviated way (eg or also eg).
Synonyms and some examples
The main meanings are "for example", "example" or "as such". It can be found in political books:
«What are the dark ideas? They are those in which we conceive the idea in such a way, that at the point that it is represented to us, we cannot know it or distinguish it from the others, for example, the idea of any bulk.
It is also observable in texts of Roman law and clear, later:
"The theory of dynamic evidentiary burdens cannot be applied in a general and indiscriminate nature (it is residual), since it constitutes an exceptional apartment of the legal norms that establish the distribution of the onus probandi (for example, articles 377 of the Procedural Code)."
Or it can be pointed out directly that "the 20th century in Latin America was marked by bloody military dictatorships, for example those of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay or Chile, among others."
When we use it as a noun, we do it referring to this word as in the case of this article that you are reading, although we can also point out that:
"The language teacher did not use clear words". In this case we refer to the word in masculine, and it is also possible to use it in the plural.
Whereas, when we use the abbreviated form of the term, we can do so with the terms "eg" or "eg". In that case, it is always done with a period at the end of each letter to indicate that it belongs to a different word than the one that follows it.
Its use is the same as when we abbreviate "example" with "ex." So we can indicate that "the most relevant Italian music artists of recent years emerged in the 1990s. Vg: Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini or Andre Bocelli."
Finally, in the English language we can find the equivalent of verbigracia, which sounds very similar to the original Latin term, and which is "exempli gratia".
Antonyms
The word verbigracia does not have words that directly mean the opposite, since despite being in some cases a noun, it does not indicate any quality of it.
References
- Marcelo Sebastián Midón (2018). «Right of Evidence. General Part ». Recovered from: books.google.bg
- For example (2019). Royal Spanish Academy. Recovered from: dle.rae.es
- Plotino Rhodakanaty. (2001). "Socialist Thought of the XIX Century". Recovered from: books.google.com
- For example (2019). "Dictionary Panhispánico of doubts of the RAE". Recovered from: lema.rae.es
- Fabio Garzón. "History of Roman law". Recovered from: books.google.bg