Talk:Presidio

San Elizario
Under Texas, would San Elizario qualify? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_Chapel_of_San_Elizario

The prsidio is made for protecting the missions —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.236.96.18 (talk • contribs)

Etymology - origin?
What does the word mean or signify exactly? Fort? Defencive position? Keep? Outpost? Sanctuary?Nunamiut (talk) 01:55, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Lead par?
The lead paragraph defines the term as being "in North America", but the body of the article links to examples in Italy. Which is it?

Dybryd (talk) 22:25, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Every Spanish dictionary I can get ahold of translates a presidio as a penitentiary or imprisonment. A fort is a fuerte or a fortaleza. I live about 20 miles from Presidio La Bahia de Loretto and Indians were encouraged to give up their ways live in the fort and accept the food from the missionaries which hastened the decline of tribal life. It certainly smacks of a dark purpose if one thinks of a penitentiary as a prison. However, it could have meant a place to become penitent and reform which is the dictionary definition of the adjective form penitentiary. If so it begs the question were there "penitentiaries" in the Old World that functioned like something akin to a monastery. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.233.142.16 (talk) 00:18, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Presidio means fort, fortress, or fortification.
The lede currently incorrectly defines it as prison, which is more correctly translated as prisión or cárcel. The word comes from the same Latin root word that preside comes from, a praesidum in Roman archaeological sites is usually always called a fort. These were usually the foundations of townsites, not prisons. The reason prison is shown in the RAE definition, is in reference to act of presiding, which in Spanish is presidiar, presidio or presidia, in that context, is a task not a place. In the context of places it always references a fort, not the task. 73.98.120.89 (talk) 04:34, 16 December 2019 (UTC)
 * The first sentence is cited to, in which the first definition for presidio is given as Establicimiento penintenciario. We go with what reliable sources say. If you feel that the Dictionario do la lengua Española published by the Real Academia Española is not a reliable source, please present your arguments. - Donald Albury 16:34, 16 December 2019 (UTC)