amargo

Forms

amargo (feminine amarga, masculine plural amargos, feminine plural amargas)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas explains it as the older inherited from Old Spanish amaro (“bitter”), inherited from Latin amārus (“bitter”), reshaped under the influence of the verb amargar.^[2][3] The DLE and Wiktionary give the same account.^[4][1] The verb itself continues Late Latin amaricare, found in the Itala and in Christian writers, although Saint Jerome avoided it as too vulgar.^[2] Corominas compares the parallel case of bayo, and points out that Portuguese amargo and Catalan amarg were reshaped in the same way.^[2]

Others start from an unattested adjective Vulgar Latin *amāricus: so García de Diego, the Academy's historical dictionary of 1960–96, and Cunha for the Portuguese word.^[5][6][7] Machado holds that the Catalan forms make a back-formation from the verb unlikely.^[8] The older form without ⟨g⟩ survives in Italian amaro, French amer, Occitan amar and Romanian amar.^[9]

De Vaan finds the Latin word hard to explain: no verb exists from which it could be derived, and he prefers a link with Germanic words for “sour”, such as Old English ampre and Middle Dutch amper, from Proto-Germanic *am(p)ra-, which may go back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂em-ro-.^[10] Wiktionary sets up *h₂eh₃m- (“bitter, raw”), the root of Ancient Greek ὠμός (ōmós, “raw”).^[1] De Vaan finds the link with the words for “raw” semantically weak.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records of the form amargo are bynames: Pedro Amargo in a charter of Cardeña of 1062, the date the DCECH and the BDELC give, and Dominico Iohanes Amargo at Calahorra in 1152.^[6][2][3] As an ordinary adjective it occurs from the Fazienda de Ultramar (c. 1211–1235) on.^[11] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of taste, and his Estoria de España of a muy grand & amarga seruidumbre “very great and bitter servitude”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses are as old as the literal one: Alfonso X's prose already has the word for what causes grief, for a person who is grieved and for a harsh, ungracious man.^[12] The Tentative Dictionary's citations begin with Berceo, and give the senses “bitter to the taste”, “painful” and, in the Libro de buen amor, “displeased”.^[13] A Mozarabic plant name amárico, recorded by Ibn Yulyul before 1004, probably named a bitter thistle or centaury.^[6][2]

Covarrubias (1611) calls bitter the opposite of sweet and gives the proverb al gusto estragado lo dulce le es amargo “to a spoilt palate the sweet is bitter”.^[14] Autoridades (1726) defines the literal sense and the figurative one in amargos días, amargas horas, amarga vida.^[15] In 1770 the Academy added the plural amargos for sweets made with bitter almonds and for a pharmaceutical preparation of bitter ingredients, and in 1869 a liqueur of bitter almonds and the sense “harsh-tempered”.^[16][17] Domínguez (1846) notes that a person was said to be amargo “upset, grieved” especially in Aragon.^[18]

In the Río de la Plata amargo is mate drunk without sugar, and in Argentina also a person who lacks drive or generosity.^[4][19] In Mexico it was a popular liquor made with the peel of citrus fruit, and in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic a liquor of herbs or fruit macerated in spirits.^[20][19]

Timeline

• a1004 – the Mozarabic plant name amárico in Ibn Yulyul.^[6]
• 1062 – Pedro Amargo, a byname, in a charter of Cardeña.^[6][2]
• c. 1211–1235 – the Fazienda de Ultramar, the first text in the Old Spanish Textual Archive with the adjective.^[11]
• c. 1230–1260 – Berceo, the Tentative Dictionary's first record.^[13]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of taste.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives amargo o amargoso with Latin amarus and amarulentus.^[21]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb al gusto estragado lo dulce le es amargo.^[14]
• 1770 – the Academy records amargos as sweets of bitter almonds.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin amarus.^[23]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bitter: of a taste, strong and usually unpleasant, like that of bile or quinine; having such a taste: El café sin azúcar me sabe amargo.^[4][1]
2. Causing grief or displeasure: una amarga decepción.^[4][24]
3. Grieved or displeased.^[4]
4. Harsh and surly in temper.^[4]
5. Showing bitterness or sorrow: una sonrisa amarga.^[4]
6. (Argentina, Uruguay) Of a person, mean, ungenerous; lacking enthusiasm or drive.^[19]

Noun

1. Bitterness, a bitter taste.^[4][1]
2. A bitter substance.^[4]
3. A dry sweet made with bitter almonds.^[4]
4. A liqueur made with bitter almonds.^[4]
5. A pharmaceutical preparation made chiefly of bitter ingredients.^[4]
6. (Argentina, Uruguay) mate drunk without sugar.^[4][19]
7. (Mexico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic) A liquor of herbs, fruit or citrus peel macerated in spirits.^[20][19]

Word family

• amargaleja
• amargón
• amargor
• amargura
• amargoso

Related words

• amargar
• amarillo
• marrasquino
• Latin amārus
• Italian amaro
• French amer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 233
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amargo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. amargo
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. amargo
6. ^ a b c d e 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. amargo
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 206
8. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 219
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
12. ^ 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. amargo
13. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 33
14. ^ 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. 1, 163
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 261
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 216
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 45
18. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 105
19. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. amargo
20. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 91
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 292
22. ^ 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. amargo
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 64
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amargo