bajo

Forms

bajo (feminine baja, masculine plural bajos, feminine plural bajas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote baxo, baxa, and occasionally vaxo and bayso.^[2][1] An Old Castilian baso and the Mozarabic basso and baxxo are recorded.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin bassus (“stout and short”).^[4][5][1] The Latin adjective is known only from glosses and as a personal name, and is thought to be of Oscan origin.^[4][5] Medieval glossaries explain it as “fat, stout” and “short, low”.^[6][7] The DLE starts instead from a Vulgar Latin variant bassius;^[8] Wiktionary explains this variant by the influence of the verb *bassiāre “to lower”.^[1]

The Latin word would have given *baso; before the earliest texts it became baxo under the influence of the verb bajar, baxar, as it did in Portuguese baixo and Catalan baix.^[4][9] Most other Romance languages have the regular form: Occitan bas, French bas and Italian basso.^[4][10]

Wiktionary considers the Latin word possibly borrowed from Oscan, from a Celtic language, or from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis) or βαθύς (bathús, “deep”).^[1] Covarrubias (1611) had also derived it from the Greek word for “base”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first records are in Gonzalo de Berceo, in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos and the Signos del Juicio.^[4] In Alfonso X's General estoria (1272–1275) it describes shallow water: girls are afraid to enter the water unless it is „poca ell agua et muy baxa” “little water and very low”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

As an adverb, “in a low voice”, the word is found in the Partidas and is frequent later.^[4] The noun “shoal, raised sea or river bed” is recorded from the 15th century.^[4] Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary (c. 1495) already lists baxo as a preposition, with Latin infra and sub.^[13] Corominas, however, finds the first sure example of the preposition (earlier bajo de) only in Lupercio Argensola, in verse, and the next not before Cadalso in the second half of the 18th century.^[4][14]

Covarrubias (1611) gives the musical sense, the deepest voice and the foundation of the others, beside the ground floor of a house, the low-born man, and hablar baxo “to speak softly”.^[11] The Academy's 1884 dictionary has the adjective with senses such as “humble, despicable”, the adverb “below” and “in a low voice”, and the preposition “under”.^[15] In the Canary Islands bajo is the flat shore flooded at high tide.^[16]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – Berceo uses baxo in his lives of saints.^[4][5]
• 1256–1263 – the adverb, “in a low voice”, in the Partidas.^[4][13]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it of shallow water.^[12]
• 15th century – the noun “shoal”, in Díaz de Gámez.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija lists baxo as a preposition and as an adverb.^[13]
• 1521 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba, of low-grade gold.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the musical sense, the bass voice.^[11]
• second half of the 18th century – the preposition becomes usual, with Cadalso.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy lists the adjective, adverb and preposition.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. short, of little height: Es más bajo que su hermana.^[8][1]
2. low, situated lower than others of the same kind: la planta baja.^[8][1]
3. Low on a scale: notas bajas, precios bajos.^[8]
4. Lying at a low altitude, or near the mouth of a river: el Bajo Ebro.^[8][18]
5. Turned or hanging downwards: con la mirada baja.^[8]
6. Of a social class or district: humble, modest: un barrio bajo.^[8]
7. base, mean, contemptible: una acción baja.^[8][1]
8. Of language or style: vulgar, coarse.^[8]
9. (music) Bass, deep in pitch.^[1]

Adverb

1. Low, below: Los aviones vuelan muy bajo.^[1][15]
2. Softly, in a low voice: Habla más bajo, que duerme el niño.^[1][4]

Preposition

1. under, beneath: bajo un árbol; also figuratively, under someone's authority or a condition: bajo juramento.^[15][14]

Noun

1. (music) The bass: the lowest voice or part, a singer with that voice, or the bass instrument.^[1][11]
2. (Spain) The ground floor of a building.^[1]
3. A shoal: a raised part of the bed of a sea or river that hinders navigation.^[4][16]

Word family

• bajeza
• bajío
• bajura
• abajo
• debajo
• bajamar
• contrabajo
• altibajo
• bajorrelieve
• bajista

Related words

• bajar
• Vulgar Latin bassus
• Portuguese baixo
• Catalan baix
• Italian basso

Usage notes

The prepositional use is old in Nebrija but became common only in the 18th century; before that bajo de and debajo de were used.^[4][13] Por lo bajo means “in a low voice” or “on the quiet”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bajo
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 461
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bajo
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. bajo
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 554
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 291
12. ^ 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. bajo
13. ^ a b c d 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. bajo
14. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. bajo
15. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 130
16. ^ a b 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. bajo
17. ^ 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. bajo
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bajo