ajo

Forms

ajo m (plural ajos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote aio, axo and ayo;^[2] Asturian has ayu, Leonese allo and Navarrese aillo or ailo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin alium (“garlic”), also written allium.^[3][4][5][1] The classical form has a single /l/, and the spelling with ⟨ll⟩ appears in inscriptions from the 1st century AD.^[6] A Mozarabic form alyo is recorded in a botanical glossary of about 1100.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese alho, Galician allo, Asturian ayu, Aragonese allo, Catalan all, Occitan alh, French ail, Italian aglio, Sardinian azu and Romanian ai.^[7][8][3][9]

De Vaan finds no accepted etymology for the Latin word.^[6] He mentions a speculative derivation from āla (“wing”), the bulb being divided into wings, like Old High German klobalouh (“garlic”), named for its cloves.^[6] The Latin word has also been compared with a Greek gloss for vegetables used among the Italians, which may come from another Italic language.^[6][1] The DHLF thinks it probably a native Italic word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) lists un braço de aios “an armful of garlic” among the payments due to a ploughman, beside salt and onions.^[11] Corominas gives Berceo as the first record: in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) a broken chain is ground up faster than ajos en el mortero “garlic in a mortar”.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Garlic was cheap and common: the Libro de Alexandre says a thing was not worth un ajo, and a source of Alfonso X prices una cabeça d'aios “a head of garlic” at a silver penny.^[11][12] Covarrubias in 1611 calls it the labourers' theriac, giving warmth and strength to those who work in the fields.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) adds the sauce made with garlic, which takes the name of the dish (ajo pollo, ajo comino), and a figurative sense, the make-up women use on their faces.^[14] In 1817 the Academy added a shady business in which several people take part, as in andar en el ajo.^[15] In Cuba the phrase means rather the heart of a matter.^[16]

Spanish carried the word to the Americas and Asia, and it was borrowed into many languages there, including Tagalog aho, Quechua ahus, Guarani áho and Mapudungun ako.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – the Mozarabic form alyo in a botanical glossary.^[2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has aios.^[11]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos uses ajos.^[11][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of water of garlic.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin allium as its equivalent.^[17]
• 1540 – first record of ajiaceite, garlic and oil sauce.^[4]
• 1549 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls garlic the labourers' remedy.^[13]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “garlic sauce”.^[19]
• 1817 – the Academy records andar en el ajo.^[15]
• 1836 – alioli is borrowed from Catalan.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. garlic: a plant of the lily family with narrow leaves and small white flowers, whose strong-smelling bulb is widely used to season food.^[5][1]
2. A clove of garlic, one of the parts into which the bulb is divided: Pela dos ajos y pícalos finos.^[5]
3. A sauce made with garlic to season food, sometimes named after the dish it goes with: ajo comino.^[5]
4. (colloquial; in estar en el ajo, andar en el ajo) A matter or intrigue in which several people are involved.^[20][15]

Word family

• ajete
• ajiaceite
• ajoarriero
• ajilimójili
• ajoblanco

Related words

• aliáceo
• alioli
• Latin alium
• Catalan all

Usage notes

A second ajo is a euphemistic clipping of carajo and means a swear word, as in echar ajos or soltar ajos.^[21][1][20] It is recorded in Chile and Argentina in the early 20th century.^[22][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ajo
3. ^ 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, 95
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ajo
5. ^ a b c d 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. ajo
6. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. allium
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. ayu
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ail
11. ^ 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. ajo
12. ^ a b 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. ajo
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 92
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. ajo
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 33
16. ^ Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 43
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 288
18. ^ 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. ajo
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 145
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ajo
21. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ajo
22. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 36
23. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 15