asar

Forms

asar (first-person singular present aso, first-person singular preterite asé, past participle asado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish assar, inherited from Latin assāre (“to roast”), a verb formed from the adjective assus (“roasted; dry”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Old Spanish spelt it with ⟨ss⟩, as Nebrija and Pedro de Alcalá still did.^[2]

Corominas states that the verb survives only in Portuguese, Castilian and a Sardinian dialect: Portuguese assar, Galician asar, Asturian asar and Sardinian assare of Nuoro.^[2][6][7] García de Diego lists a Catalan assar, but Corominas says that Catalan never had such a verb, and he derives the Majorcan sobrasada from Italian soppressata rather than from the Spanish verb.^[7][2]

De Vaan reconstructs *asso- (“dried, roasted”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂d-to- (“dried up”), from the root *h₂ed- (“to dry”) of Ancient Greek ἄζω (ázō, “to dry”).^[8] He rejects Ernout and Meillet's derivation from a form related to ardeō (“to burn”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), on the Passover lamb: no lo comades cocho en agua ni crudo mas assado en fuego “do not eat it boiled in water nor raw, but roasted in the fire”.^[9][10] Berceo writes of the same lamb in the Sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246): assado lo comiessen, non cocho “they should eat it roasted, not boiled”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the verb for roasting fish and also in the sense “to burn, scorch”.^[11] The Libro de buen amor (1330–1343) roasts chestnuts and partridges.^[12][13] Covarrubias (1611) offers two fanciful origins: a word for a pointed stake, and the Latin assa vox “the voice alone”, since roast meat has nothing added.^[14][15] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) adds the reflexive “to burn with heat” and the proverb aun no asamos y ya empringamos, said of those who act before the time is ripe.^[16] Gaspar y Roig (1853) record the figurative sense “to pester, plague”.^[17]

In the Canary Islands asar a pellizcones is to torment someone with pinches.^[18] In Peru the verb means “to anger”, and the reflexive “to get angry”.^[19] In Judeo-Spanish asarse is also to burn with fever or to lose a lot of money.^[20]

Timeline

• 1129 – the derivative asadura is recorded for a toll paid for the passage of flocks.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has assado and assaron, in a 13th-century copy.^[9][10]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa has assado.^[9]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses the verb for “to burn”.^[11]
• 1389 – first record of the derivative asador.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin torreo as its equivalent.^[21]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias offers his etymologies.^[14]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the reflexive and the proverb.^[16]
• 1853 – Gaspar y Roig record “to pester”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To roast or grill food by direct fire or hot air, sometimes basting it with fat or another liquid: Asamos unas sardinas en la parrilla.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To scorch, burn.^[4]
3. (transitive, figurative) To pester or plague someone: la asaban a preguntas todo el día.^[23][1]
4. (reflexive) To feel extremely hot: En esta oficina me aso.^[4][24]
5. (Peru) To anger someone;^[19] (reflexive) to get angry.^[19]

Word family

• asado
• asador
• asadura
• soasar
• sobreasar
• asadera
• asadero

Related words

• Latin assus
• Portuguese assar

Usage notes

Asarse vivo is a colloquial intensive of the reflexive, “to roast alive”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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, 369
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asar
4. ^ a b c d e 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. asar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. assare
8. ^ 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
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. asar
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. asar
11. ^ 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. asar
12. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 53
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. 400
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. 226
15. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 232
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 438
17. ^ a b 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, 250
18. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. asar
19. ^ 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. asar
20. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. asar
21. ^ 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. asar
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. asar
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asar
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. asar