calmar

Forms

calmar (first-person singular present calmo, first-person singular preterite calmé, past participle calmado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish calma + -ar, from the noun calma “calm, stillness”.^[2][1][3] The noun is from Late Latin cauma (“heat”), itself from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma, “burning, heat”), a derivative of καίω (kaíō, “I burn”).^[4][3] Corominas explains that the word was first applied to the calms at sea that prevail in the hottest season; the older sense “heat, sultriness” still lives in León, Aragon and Catalonia, and is the usual one in Catalan and Portuguese from their first records in the 15th century.^[3] In his view both the change of meaning and the change of ⟨u⟩ to ⟨l⟩ happened first in the Iberian Peninsula and spread from there to the other modern languages.^[3] Wiktionary allows that the noun may have come through Italian calma, but notes that it is recorded in Ibero-Romance as early as in Italian.^[1]

The adjective calmo “windless, calm”, classical in the 16th century and now only American, also spread from the Peninsula to French calme (15th century) and Italian calmo.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to 1431–1450.^[3] The Diccionario medieval español puts it in the 15th century, used intransitively of the weather, “to be or become calm”, and quotes the chronicle of Pero Niño: E y a un día calmó el viento “and there one day the wind dropped”.^[5] Cejador's medieval vocabulary quotes the same chronicle for the wind falling at the fourth watch before dawn.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was nautical and intransitive: Autoridades defines calmar as the wind stopping, and at sea the air dropping so that the ship stands still, and figuratively as an affair being suspended or left pending.^[7][7] Terreros has both the transitive “to appease, quiet” and the intransitive “to begin to fall calm”.^[8] The Academy's 1817 dictionary gives only the transitive sense “to soothe, quiet, temper”, with the example of camphor calming pain; the 1843 edition adds the intransitive use again, and by 1899 the verb is also used reflexively.^[9][10][11]

Today the verb is mostly transitive and pronominal, for calming a person, a pain, a feeling or a situation, and calmarse means “to calm down”.^[2][12][1] In the Americas the early records are still about the wind (Río de la Plata, 1583), and a figurative use for a trade that has stopped appears in New Granada in 1683.^[13] In Aragon the colloquial verb means “to do someone serious harm, especially financially” and “to overcharge”.^[12][14]

Timeline

• 1431–1450 – first record, according to Corominas.^[3]
• 15th century – the chronicle of Pero Niño: calmó el viento.^[5]
• 1583 – first record from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata, of the wind dropping.^[13]
• 1683 – New Granada: the yearly shipments of slaves to Cartagena calmaron, that is, stopped.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the intransitive, nautical verb.^[7]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros gives the transitive sense “to appease”.^[8]
• 1817 – the Academy defines the verb as transitive, “to soothe, temper”.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy notes its reflexive use.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To calm, soothe or quiet someone or something: La enfermera calmó al niño asustado.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To relieve or lessen a pain, a need or the force of something: Esta infusión te calmará el dolor de estómago.^[12][1]
3. (intransitive) Of the weather, the wind or the sea: to be calm or to become calm.^[2][12]
4. (pronominal) To calm down, to regain one's composure: Cálmate y cuéntamelo despacio.^[15][1]
5. (Aragon, colloquial) To do serious harm to someone, especially financially; to charge someone too much.^[12]

Word family

• calmante

Related words

• calma
• calmo
• calmoso
• Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma)

Usage notes

An older variant is acalmar.^[1] The set phrase calmar los ánimos means “to calm tempers”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. calmar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. calma
4. ^ 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. calma
5. ^ a b 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. 587
6. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 108
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 75
8. ^ a b 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, 318
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 160
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 128
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 176
12. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. calmar
13. ^ a b c 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. calmar
14. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 12
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. calmar