callar

Forms

callar (first-person singular present callo, first-person singular preterite callé, past participle callado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *callāre (“to lower”), specialised in the sense “to lower the voice”.^[2][3][4] The Latin verb is a loan from Ancient Greek χαλάω (khaláō, “to loosen, let down”).^[2][4][1] Wiktionary gives the classical form as chalāre.^[1] Corominas explains the ⟨ll⟩ for the Greek letter lambda as a way of avoiding the velar quality of the single Latin /l/ before a vowel, a quality foreign to Greek, as in other Greek loans in Latin; he therefore rejects Baist's view that the verb is derived from callo “callus” with an original sense “to harden”.^[2] García de Diego puts it beside the related calar “to lower, soak, penetrate”, from the form with a single /l/.^[5]

The same verb is Portuguese calar, Catalan callar and Occitan calar.^[2] Beekes, as Wiktionary reports him, considers the Greek verb of unknown or Pre-Greek origin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[2][3] There it means “not to speak” and “to stop speaking”: El rey una grant ora calló e comidió “the king was silent a long while and pondered”, and fizo callar la cort “he made the court fall silent”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive callarse is found from Berceo and the Libros del Acedrex on.^[2] Alfonso X uses the verb for keeping silent, stopping speaking, stopping crying and withholding what one knows.^[8] Covarrubias in 1611 derived it from Latin calleo “to be shrewd”, because shrewd people are silent; this is his own opinion.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades records the transitive sense “to leave something unsaid”, the figurative “to bear wrongs in silence”, and its poetic use of the sea, a river or a beast.^[10] Gaspar y Roig list proverbs such as quien calla otorga “silence gives consent”.^[11] The interjection ¡calla! expresses surprise.^[4][12]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – vos callarvos edes “you shall hold your peace” in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[13]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Libro conplido has yo calle me “I kept silent”.^[8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin taceo and sileo.^[14]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from calleo.^[9]
• 1917 – Alemany gives the Latin and Greek etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To leave something unsaid; to withhold or omit: Se calló el nombre de la persona que se lo había contado.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive, also reflexive) Of a person: to keep silent, not to speak.^[4][1]
3. (intransitive, also reflexive) To stop speaking; to shut up: ¡Cállate de una vez!^[4][1]
4. (intransitive, also reflexive) To stop crying, shouting, singing, playing or making noise.^[4]
5. (intransitive, also reflexive) To refrain from expressing what one feels or knows.^[4]
6. (intransitive, also reflexive) Of animals: to stop making their sounds.^[4]
7. (intransitive, chiefly poetic) Of the sea, the wind or a volcano: to fall still.^[4]
8. (intransitive) Of a musical instrument: to stop sounding.^[4]

Word family

• acallar
• callado
• calladamente
• callandico

Related words

• calar
• Ancient Greek χαλάω (khaláō)

Usage notes

Calla callando is a colloquial adverb meaning “on the quiet”, the same as chiticallando.^[4] Moliner notes the proverb al buen callar llaman Sancho, a counsel of discretion.^[12]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 771
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. callar
4. ^ 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. callar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1258
6. ^ 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. 592
7. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 111
8. ^ 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. callar
9. ^ 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. 390
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 71
11. ^ 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, 454
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. callar
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. callar
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 309
15. ^ 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. callar
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 309