angosto

Forms

angosto (feminine angosta, masculine plural angostos, feminine plural angostas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin angustus (“narrow”).^[2][3][1][4] The Cantar de mio Cid already has the modern form.^[5][6] The verb angostar continues the Latin verb formed on the same adjective.^[7]

The same Latin word is Romanian îngust and Old Galician-Portuguese angosto.^[8][9] A compound form lives on in Catalan congost (“narrow pass”) and Portuguese congosta (“narrow lane between walls”).^[8] Segura Munguía traces congoja to Catalan congoixa, from Vulgar Latin *congustia (“narrowness”), built on *congustus, a contraction of *coangustus.^[10]

De Vaan derives the Latin adjective from the family of angō (“to strangle, choke”), and reconstructs Proto-Italic *angosto- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂emǵʰ-os-to- (“characterised by narrowness”), built on a noun *h₂emǵʰ-os (“narrowness, anxiety”).^[11] Its relatives include Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō, “to squeeze, strangle”).^[11] Wiktionary writes the root *h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow, tight”), and explains the Latin vowel ⟨u⟩ by the reduction of ⟨o⟩ in a closed syllable after the first.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses the word twice of a land, in the sense “poor, barren”: si non, en esta tierra angosta non podriemos bivir “otherwise we could not live in this barren land”.^[5][6][2] Menéndez Pidal explains such a land as one that makes its people live in want.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the adjective for narrow roads, passes and doors, for tight clothing and small houses, and for barren land; the Libro de buen amor also has it as a noun meaning “distress”.^[12][13] Alfonso X's Lapidario describes a cave whose entrance is very narrow, and the Estoria de España a land too poor to stay in.^[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defined it as the opposite of wide and recorded the phrase venir angosto, said of something that falls short of a person's ambition or merit.^[15] From 1770 the Academy marked the senses “scarce” and “sad, distressing” as antiquated, and the current DLE keeps only “narrow” and the obsolete “scarce”.^[16][3] Moliner notes that the word is now used almost only of places, and more often in Spanish America than in Spain.^[17] In Bolivia it is said of a shy, unsociable person and of a woman without sexual experience.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid calls a land angosta, “barren”.^[5][2]
• c. 1245 – the Poema de Fernán González speaks of a tierra muy angosta de viandas “a land very short of food”.^[5]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of a narrow cave entrance.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin angustus as its equivalent.^[19]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records calle angosta and tierra angosta.^[21]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the phrase venir angosto.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin angustus.^[22]

Meanings

Adjective

1. narrow, tight; of small width: Subimos por un sendero angosto entre las rocas.^[3][17][1]
2. (obsolete) Scarce, meagre.^[3][17]
3. (Bolivia, of a person) shy and unsociable.^[18]
4. (Bolivia, of a woman) Without sexual experience.^[18]

Word family

• angostura

Related words

• angostar
• congoja
• Latin angustus
• Catalan congost

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. angosto
3. ^ 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. angosto
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. angosto
5. ^ 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. angosto
6. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. angosto
7. ^ 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. angostar
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 471
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 43
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 37
13. ^ 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. 309
14. ^ 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. angosto
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 294
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 245
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. angosto
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. angosto
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 293
20. ^ 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. angosto
21. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 178
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 74