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caliente

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word caliente

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1218–1250 Fuero de Zorita de los Canes More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin calens
Ultimate origin
Latin caleo

Pronunciation

  • /kaˈljente/, [kaˈljẽn̪.t̪e][1]

Forms

caliente m or f (masculine and feminine plural calientes)[1] Old Spanish also had callente (Sem Tob and others), formed as lleva beside lieva.[2] The same variant explains callenta for calienta in the Quijote.[2] Old Spanish records also show the short form calient and the spellings calyent, cayllent and caillient.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin calentem (“being hot, glowing”), the accusative of the present participle of caleō (“to be warm”).[2][5][6][1] The Latin participle meant “that has been heated, burning”.[5] In all three Ibero-Romance languages it replaced the Latin adjective calidus, whose outcome is caldo.[2]

The same word is Portuguese quente and Galician quente, from older caente, and Catalan calent, which reaches a little beyond the Catalan-speaking area into the south of the Hérault.[2][7] Old Spanish had a variant callente beside it.[2][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kalēō.[8][1] De Vaan explains it as a stative verb Proto-Indo-European *ḱlh₁-eh₁- (“to be hot”), and compares Welsh clyd and Lithuanian šiltas, both “warm”.[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record without a later copy is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), on the ordeal of the hot iron: que se salue por el fierro caliente “let him clear himself by the hot iron”.[9] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar, dated c. 1200 but known from a 13th-century copy, already has the short form calient.[9] Corominas dates the first record to Berceo, who speaks of bodies cold in summer and warm in winter.[2][5][10]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) the word describes a stone taken hot from the fire, and in medieval science it names one of the four basic qualities of the elements and humours.[4] The Diccionario de Autoridades also gives the figurative sense “lively, fierce, bloody” of a skirmish, and the phrase a sangre caliente “at once, while the heat lasts”.[11] Terreros added the use for people stirred by a passion and for female animals in heat.[12] The Academy's 1843 dictionary listed en caliente “at once” and estar caliente for animals in heat.[13]

Domínguez in 1846 also recorded the senses “tipsy” and “annoyed”.[14] Alemany in 1917 noted the use for someone close to guessing a thing, in Andalusia, Extremadura and the Americas, and the Colombian sense “brave, bold”.[15][16] The current dictionary adds the senses “lustful”, “sexually aroused”, “full of conflict” and, in physics, “highly radioactive”.[6][17]

In much of Spanish America caliente means “very angry”, and in Honduras, Panama and Puerto Rico it describes stolen goods.[18] The sense “angry” is also Canarian.[19][20] Bénaben notes that caliente is said of what has been heated, while cálido describes natural warmth, as of a climate or a welcome.[21]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has the short form calient.[9]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes speaks of the fierro caliente of the ordeal.[9]
  • c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos mentions emplastos calientes “hot poultices”.[9][2]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses calient of a stone and of one of the four qualities.[4]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin equivalents calidus and caldus.[22]
  • 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico: esta tierra es muy caliente.[23]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative sense “fierce” and the phrase a sangre caliente.[11]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology from Latin calens.[24]
  • 1917 – Alemany records the sense “close to guessing” and the Colombian sense “brave”.[15]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. hot, warm: having or giving off heat: El café todavía está caliente.[6][1]
  2. Of a room or a garment: that keeps one warm and comfortable.[6]
  3. Of an argument, quarrel or fight: heated, lively.[6][20]
  4. Full of conflict, tense: un verano caliente en la política.[6][20]
  5. (colloquial) lustful; sexually aroused.[6][1]
  6. (painting) Of a colour or range of colours: warm, with reddish and golden tones.[6][20]
  7. (physics) Of a material: highly radioactive; of a laboratory or device: that handles such material.[6]
  8. (Spain, colloquial, and much of Latin America) Very angry.[20][18]
  9. (Honduras, Panama, Puerto Rico) Of goods, especially a vehicle: stolen.[18]

Interjection

  1. “Warm!”: said to someone who is close to finding a hidden object or guessing something.[6][1][20]

Word family

  • calentura
  • recalentar
  • calentar
  • calentón
  • calientapiés
  • caldo
  • caluroso
  • escalfar
  • cálido
  • Latin calens
  • Portuguese quente

Usage notes

En caliente means “at once, while the feeling that prompts the action lasts”;[20] paños calientes are half-measures.[6][20] The proverb ande yo caliente y ríase la gente “let me be warm and let people laugh” is in the Quijote.[25][20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 764
  3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. caliente
  4. ^ a b c 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. caliente
  5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caliente
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. caliente
  7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1272
  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 e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. caliente
  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. 586
  11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 68
  12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 315
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 128
  14. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 315
  15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 305
  16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 274
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. caliente
  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. caliente
  19. ^ 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. caliente
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caliente
  21. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. caliente
  22. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 308
  23. ^ 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. caliente
  24. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 190
  25. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 231

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Caliente.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/caliente. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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