arrugar

Forms

arrugar (first-person singular present arrugo, first-person singular preterite arrugué, past participle arrugado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin irrūgō (“to draw into folds or wrinkles”).^{[2][1][3][4][5]} Corominas gives the simple verb rūgō (“to wrinkle”) as the source instead; the OLD analyses the compound as in- added to that verb.^[6][7][8] The simple verb is formed from rūga (“wrinkle”).^[1]

The same Latin verb gave Galician enrugar, and with metathesis engurrar and Asturian engurriar.^[3] In Spanish the metathesis is seen in engurriarse, recorded from 1555.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the participle in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy), describing the saint's face: La faz muy negra e arrugada de frío viento e de la elada “the face very black and wrinkled from the cold wind and the frost”.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb was first used of the skin and the face: a poem of the Cancionero de Baena (early 15th century) speaks of an old man's skin that is all wrinkling, and the Celestina (1499) of aquel arrugar de cara “that wrinkling of the face”.^[10][6] Autoridades (1726) defined it for the skin and then for any other thing, such as a badly folded cloak.^[11] The Academy's 1770 dictionary added arrugar la frente “to show anger in the face” and the medias de arrugar, long stockings worn wrinkled as a fashion.^[12] Its 1817 edition recorded a jocular arrugarse “to die”.^[13]

The pronominal senses “to shrink, cower” and, in thieves' slang, “to run away” are in the DLE.^[2][6] In Mexico arrugarse meant to lose one's nerve, and in Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay it is to give up doing something; in Cuba arrugar is to annoy.^[14][15][2] The Argentine, Cuban and Uruguayan saying no arrugues, que no hay quien planche means that the speaker will not do what is asked.^[14][16] In the Canary Islands potatoes are arrugadas when boiled in very salty water until the skin wrinkles.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca has arrugada.^[9][6]
• c. 1250 – arrugada in Poridat de poridades, the first record without a later copy.^[9]
• c. 1293 – a book of counsel advises against wrinkling the nose: njn arrugue mucho las narizes.^[9]
• early 15th century – the Cancionero de Baena;^[6][7] Corominas's first record of the noun arruga too.^[6][7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin rugo and irrugo.^[18]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines the verb.^[11]
• 1770 – the Academy records arrugar la frente.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy records jocular arrugarse “to die”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To wrinkle, crease or crumple: Guarda bien el mapa para que no se arrugue.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) Of a person, to wrinkle a part of the face, such as the brow, in anger or worry: Arrugó la nariz al oler la leche agria.^[2]
3. (transitive, Cuba) To annoy, bother someone.^[2][15]
4. (pronominal) To shrink or cower;^[2][1][20] (colloquial) to lose one's nerve, back down: No se arrugó cuando el jefe le levantó la voz.^[2][1][20]
5. (pronominal, thieves' slang) To run away, escape.^[2]

Word family

• arruga
• arrugado
• desarrugar

Related words

• rugoso
• corrugar
• engurriarse
• Latin rūga

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. arrugar
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4547a
5. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 691
6. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 360
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arruga
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. irrūgō
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. arrugar
10. ^ 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. 394
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 420
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 343
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 92
14. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 113
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. arrugar
16. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. arrugar
17. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. arrugar
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 297
19. ^ 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. arrugar
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arrugar