The word creativity has a very recent history in the Spanish lexicon -1983 in the Manual Dictionary of theRAE. Although the word is attested since the early years of the twentieth century, the occurrences will be very low until the seventies. On the other hand, the definition refers to the verb create, which presents a complex etymology in Spanish.The aim of this paper is to examine the linguistic and social genealogy of the concept of creativity in Spanish. Special attention will be paid to the origins, the changes in the definitions and the current combinatorial of the word. It will be seen then that, in order for the word to emerge, society had to detach itself from numerous inertias, so the trajectory of the term serves as an example of the process of humanization and secularization of society and science since the 19th century. It shows, in short, the link between language and society through the analysis of a concept that has become a hallmark of 21st century society. In order to carry out the work, the corpus of the Academy, CORDE, CREA, CORPES XXI and the New Lexicographical Treasure of the Spanish language have been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]