New “anti-sovereignty” dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy

The new edition of the “Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy” (DRAE) has been delivered to the Espasa publishing house who will print it and distribute it this fall. The twenty-third edition of the dictionary will incorporate changes in the definitions of many words, among which is the word “referendum”, as VilaWeb reported last year. But that’s not the only one. The newspaper “El Punt Avui” pointed out a few months ago that several more words would be revised, many of which are linked to Catalonia’s sovereignty process, including “sovereignty”, “nationalism”, “self-determination” and “state”, as well as “federal state”, “state of war” and “free associated state”.

It’s hard to know when the modifications were proposed with respect to the current twenty-second edition, published in 2001, and whether or not they are more recent, close in time to the sovereignty process, or indeed if there is any relationship at all. Whether or not it’s a coincidence, legal experts consulted by VilaWeb pointed out the importance of the changes in the meanings of words like “referendum” which in the new edition has a much more political definition. That is important because in a court of law, when there is a difference in interpretation about a concept—for example, that of a referendum—one of the criteria that is applied, in addition to legal precedents, is the definition from the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.