espediente

Espediente is a term found in Spanish and Portuguese, sometimes considered a variant spelling of expediente. It denotes a collection of documents assembled to record information relevant to a person, case, or matter within administrative, legal, or academic contexts. In practice, an espediente can refer to a file, dossier, or case history, comprising papers, forms, affidavits, and other records.

In common usage, expediente refers to the organized set of papers that document proceedings in legal cases (expediente judicial), administrative processes (expediente administrativo), or academic records (expediente académico). The term can also denote the procedural route or steps taken to achieve a result, as in planning or handling a matter.

Etymology: the word derives from Latin expedire via the Spanish and Portuguese forms; the standard modern spelling is expediente, while espediente is seen as an infrequent or archaic variant.

Variants and usage notes: espediente is less common in contemporary texts, and in most modern orthographies the form expediente is preferred. In some Latin American contexts, espediente may appear in historical documents or dialectal writing.

See also: expediente, dossier, academic record, case file.