aguzar

Forms

aguzar (first-person singular present aguzo, first-person singular preterite agucé, past participle aguzado)^[1] Older texts also spell it aguçar; the form agusar is found in Horozco around 1580 and in modern Navarre.^[2][3] Regional forms are abuzar in Navarre and Andalusia, abusar in Colombia and ausar in Navarre.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *acutiāre (“to sharpen”), derived from acūtus (“sharp”).^[4][5][6][1] Classical Latin said acuō instead.^[4] Corominas notes that acutiator (“sharpener”) is already found in Latin glosses, and that the Vulgar Latin verb survives in all the western Romance languages.^[4] It is Portuguese aguçar, Catalan agusar, Occitan agusar, French aiguiser and Italian aguzzare.^[1][7] The Spanish word acuciar “to hurry” is a learned form of the same verb, according to García de Diego.^[8]

The Latin adjective is the participle of the Latin verb meaning “to sharpen”.^[9] That verb probably comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”), the root of acus (“needle”).^[1] Corominas notes that Alonso de Palencia and Nebrija write the word with a voiced ⟨z⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in law codes: the Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235) sets what every smith shall charge to sharpen tools, e aguze a meaja “and let him sharpen for a half-penny”.^[10] The DCECH's first record is Berceo's Signos del juicio, where the serpents aguzan los dientes “whet their teeth”.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant both to make a point and to put an edge on a blade.^[11][2] Alfonso X already used it figuratively for sharpening the mind or a sense, and for spurring a hawk's eagerness.^[11] The Libro de Alexandre has horses orejas aguzando “pricking up their ears”, a phrase that the Academy recorded in 1770 together with aguzar el ingenio and aguzar la vista.^[10][12] The Academy also listed the obsolete sense “to make a syllable acute” and an Aragonese use for azuzar “to set dogs on”.^[13]

In the Caribbean the reflexive aguzarse means to wake up, become sharp or cunning (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bolivia).^[14] In Puerto Rico aguzar a fighting cock is to trim its natural spurs.^[14][15]

Timeline

• c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá uses it of smiths sharpening tools.^[10]
• 1236–1246 – Berceo's Signos del juicio has aguzan los dientes.^[4][10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario mentions the whetstone, la piedra de aguzar.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin acuo and exacuo as equivalents.^[16]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, at Puebla.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin acuo.^[18]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the phrase aguzar el ingenio.^[19]
• 1770 – the Academy records aguzar la vista and aguzar las orejas.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sharpen to a point, or to make a point finer.^[6][1]
2. To put an edge on a blade, to whet.^[6]
3. To goad (aguijar), stimulate.^[6][20]
4. To ready the teeth or claws for eating or tearing apart.^[6]
5. To make the mind or a sense keener: aguzar el oído “to strain one's ears”.^[6][1]
6. (Puerto Rico) To trim the natural spurs of a fighting cock.^[14][15]
7. (reflexive, Caribbean) To become sharp, wide-awake or cunning.^[14]

Word family

• aguzador
• aguzadura
• aguzamiento

Related words

• agudo
• acuciar
• Latin acūtus
• Portuguese aguçar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. aguzar
3. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 81
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 86
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aguzar
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. aguzar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 117
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. acūtus
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aguzar
11. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. aguzar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 112
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 31
14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aguzar
15. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. aguzar
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 287
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. aguzar
18. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 82
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 132
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aguzar