acero

Forms

acero m (plural aceros)^[1] The old spelling azero is the first recorded and prevails until the mid-16th century;^[1] açero occurs in medieval texts, and hazero arose under the influence of hierro.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish azero, inherited from Late Latin aciārium (“steel”).^[3][4][5][1] The Late Latin word is a derivative of aciēs (“sharp edge”) with the suffix -ārium, and Corominas thinks it was first an adjective qualifying ferrum (“iron”); a 10th-century Latin charter of Castile still writes the Romance form beside that noun.^[3][1] It replaced the Greek loan chalybs early in the Middle Ages.^[3] In Old Spanish the consonant was the voiced affricate written ⟨z⟩.^[3]

The same Latin word is Italian acciaio, French acier, Occitan acièr, Catalan acer and Old Galician-Portuguese aceiro; modern Portuguese aço is a back-formation from it.^[3][6][7] Corominas also compares Basque altzairu.^[3] The TDHLE allows Arabic semantic influence on the senses “edge” and “vigour”.^[2]

The Latin base noun is from aceō (“to be sour”), and is related to Ancient Greek ἀκίς (akís, “point”);^[1] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in a Spanish text is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Goliath avia el yelmo de azero “had a helmet of steel”.^[8][9] Corominas's first record is Berceo, who in the Vida de San Millán lists cuños de aceros, wedges of steel, among offerings.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

From the metal the word passed to the blade and the weapon: Autoridades (1726) has acero for the sword, for courage and resolve (mostrar buenos aceros), and for a steel tonic given to women with obstructions, quoting Quevedo's en verano toma acero.^[10] The 1843 dictionary adds the plural for the temper of a blade and, colloquially, for a good appetite.^[11] From 1843 the Academy defines steel as iron combined with carbon.^[11][12]

Asturian aceros are iron filings taken as a remedy, a use also known in Golden Age literature.^[3][13] In Aragon aceros was the musical triangle.^[14] Through Spanish the word reached the Philippines: Tagalog asero.^[1]

Timeline

• 10th century – ferro azero in a Latin charter of Castile.^[3]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar: el yelmo de azero.^[8]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has cuños de aceros.^[8][3]
• 1276 – Alfonso X's Libro dell alcora asks for a blade of good steel.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses chalybs as azero o buen hierro.^[16]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, a steel mirror in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives azero from Latin acies.^[18]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the sword, courage and the steel tonic.^[10]
• 18th century – the spelling acero becomes the only one.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. steel: an alloy (aleación) of iron with 0.02–2% carbon that can be made especially hard, elastic or strong: Las vigas del puente son de acero.^[5][1]
2. Any of the special steels.^[5]
3. (figurative) A bladed weapon, especially the sword.^[5][1]
4. (obsolete, also plural) The temper and edge of a blade.^[5]
5. (rare, mostly plural) Courage, spirit, resolve.^[5]
6. (obsolete) Iron water given as a medicine.^[5][1]

Word family

• acerar
• acería
• acerado

Related words

• Latin aciēs
• Portuguese aço
• French acier

Usage notes

A separate, rare acero is the maple (arce) and its wood, from Latin acer; the DHLE first finds it in Cascales's Cartas philologicas (1634).^[19] Acero inoxidable is stainless steel.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. acero
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 34
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acero
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. acero
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 73
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. acero
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. acero
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 46
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 8
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 13
13. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. aceru
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. acero
15. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 100
16. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. acero
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. acero
18. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 254
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. acero
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acero