Manuel Seco Reymundo (20 September 1928 – 16 December 2021) was a Spanish

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

, linguist and philologist. He worked at the department of lexicography of the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...

between 1962 and 1993. He became a member of the Academia in 1980.

Career

Seco was born on 20 September 1928 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. His father was Rafael Seco y Sánchez (1895–1933) and his mother Carmen Reymundo Mariño. He obtained a degree in

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

of the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

at the

Central University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

in 1952. He was awarded a further doctorate with the same specialization in 1969, also from the Central University. In 1960 he started as a professor of Spanish language and literature at various educational facilities. Two years later he took up a position at the lexicography department of the

, to which he was invited by Rafael Lapesa. Seco worked at the department for 31 years. Between 2000 and 2012 he was advisor to the Instituto de Lexicografía. In 2011 Seco was critical of some of the

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

changes the Academia introduced. Seco is best known for his two lexicographic works on the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

: ''el Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de la lengua española'', a dictionary on doubts and difficulties of the Spanish language, and the ''Diccionario del español actual'', a dictionary of present-day Spanish which he co-authored with Gabino Ramos and Olimpia Andrés.

Awards and honors

Seco was elected to Seat ''A'' of the

on 5 April 1979, he took up his seat on 23 November 1980. He was the longest-serving member of the Academia. In 1999 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the

Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise The Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise ( es, Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio) is a Spanish civil order established in 1939, recognising activities in the fields of education, science, culture, higher education and research. The order was create ...

. In 2015 Seco won the

Menéndez Pelayo International Prize The Menéndez Pelayo International Prize has been awarded since 1987 by the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) with the objective of honoring those persons whose literary or scientific work has a humanistic orientation and application, ...

References

External links

Juan Crespo, ''Ideas de Manuel Seco sobre la enseñanza de la lengua y literatura españolas génesis, arquitectura y evolución''.
Cauce, Revista de Filología y su Didáctica, n° 26, 2003 /págs. 67-139. Centro Virtual Cervantes {{DEFAULTSORT:Seco, Manuel 1928 births 2021 deaths Complutense University of Madrid alumni Linguists from Spain Members of the Royal Spanish Academy People from Madrid Recipients of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise Spanish lexicographers Spanish philologists