antojo

Forms

antojo m (plural antojos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ante oculum (“before the eye”) according to the TDHLE, the Academy's dictionary of 2001, Moliner, García de Diego and Wiktionary: a phrase of ante (“before”) and oculus (“eye”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The current DLE derives it instead from ante and ojo, as the Academy did in 1884.^[6][7] Corominas glosses the verb antojarse as properly “to have an idea put before one's eyes”.^[8]

The same formation is Galician antollo, Portuguese antolho and Asturian entoyo.^[5] Aragonese has antuello in Hecho.^[2]

The preposition continues *anti, from *h₂ent-i, the locative of a root noun *h₂ent- (“front”).^[9] The noun for eye goes back to *ok(e)lo- and *h₃e/okʷ-(e)lo-.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Escorial New Testament (before 1260, in a manuscript of the mid-13th century): non deue ombre tener que nos aoramos los ydolos por antoio de coraçon, mas por non saber “one should not hold that we worshipped the idols out of a fancy of the heart, but out of ignorance”.^[10][11] Alfonso X's Primera Partida (1256–1263, in a 14th-century copy) uses it for a judgement made lightly: non por yerro nin por antojo “not by mistake nor by whim”.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The sense “whim, capricious wish” runs through the Middle Ages: in Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor a good woman a las vezes tomaua algunos antojos “sometimes took some fancies”.^[2] Nebrija gives Latin libido for it, and in the plural antojos were also spectacles; a 1549 inventory from Puebla lists antojos de cristal.^[13][14][15] The Academy later marked that sense obsolete, giving it to anteojo.^[16][6]

Covarrubias in 1611 describes the craving of pregnant women, and says it was believed that the unborn child could be harmed when the mother's craving went unsatisfied.^[17] Autoridades gives three senses: a desire, the pregnancy craving and a judgement without foundation.^[12] The Academy's 1770 dictionary records the plural antojos as “shackles” in thieves' cant.^[18] Gaspar y Roig's dictionary of 1853–1855 has the medical name for birthmarks thought to resemble the mother's cravings, a sense the Academy gives in 2001.^[19][3]

In Mexico City the diminutive plural antojitos names popular regional dishes.^[20] In Argentina and Uruguay no morirse de antojo means not to be left wanting.^[21] The DLE also records the sense “annoyance, disgust” in the Basque Country.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1260 – the Escorial New Testament has antoio.^[10][11]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida (in a 14th-century copy) uses it for a judgement made lightly.^[2]
• 1330–1335 – Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor has antojos “whims”.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records antojos “spectacles” and antojo “desire”.^[13][14]
• 1549 – first record from the Americas, antojos “spectacles” in Puebla.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the craving of pregnant women.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines three senses.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy records antojos “shackles” in thieves' cant.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from ante and ojo.^[7]
• 1959 – Santamaría records antojitos “popular dishes” in Mexico City.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden, passing and usually capricious desire; a whim: Se compró el coche por puro antojo.^[6][1]
2. A craving popularly attributed to pregnant women: Embarazada, le dio antojo de aceitunas negras.^[6][4]
3. (colloquial) A birthmark, popularly ascribed to a craving the mother did not satisfy during pregnancy.^[6][1][22]
4. The person or thing desired in this way.^[6][23]
5. (Basque Country, colloquial) Annoyance, disgust, weariness.^[6]
6. (rare, mainly Latin America) A judgement made without enough examination.^[6]
7. (obsolete) An optical instrument, an anteojo; in the plural, spectacles.^[6]
8. (in the plural, thieves' cant) The shackles of prisoners.^[6]

Word family

• antojadizo
• antojar
• antojito

Related words

• anteojo
• ojo
• ante

Usage notes

A su antojo means “as one pleases, arbitrarily”.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. antojo
3. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. antojo
4. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. antojo
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ante oculum
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. antojo
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 79
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ojo
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. antojo
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. antojo
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 312
13. ^ a b 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. antojo
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 294
15. ^ a b 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. anteojo
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 69
17. ^ 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. 186
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 259
19. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 178
20. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 69
21. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 97
22. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. antojo
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. antojo