Resumo

ALVAREZ AROCHA, Cristian. Mariano Picón-Salas and the word errancia. Argos [online]. 2008, vol.25, n.48, pp.88-98. ISSN 0254-1637.

Though the word errancia can be said usual among many Hispanic writers, it was not until 1999 that it was included in Manuel Seco’s Diccionario del español actual as meaning "the act of wandering", i.e. the act of "roaming", of "going from one place to another", what is documented on a newspaper reference from 1984. Rosenblat thinks that errancia is a neologism by Picón- Salas, what leads Azzario and Morin to make some remarksabout its signification within the Venezuelan essayist’s work, where the oldest reference to the word dates back to 1927. Although it cannot be determined whether errancia is a neologism by Picón-Salas, it seems unquestionable that the peculiar use he made of it exceeds by far its spatial implications, to rather mean the elements of a spiritual itinerary

Palavras-chave : Picón-Salas; errancia; neologism; etymology; spiritual itinerary.