calor

Forms

calor m or (colloquial) f (plural calores)^[1] Old Spanish calor was often feminine, la calor, as in the Razón de amor and the Libro de Alexandre.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades noted in 1729 that some still made it feminine.^[3] Old Spanish also had calura “heat”, from Berceo to the 15th century and still in Nebrija.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin calor (“heat, warmth”); Old Spanish calor is first recorded in the first half of the 13th century.^[5][4][6] Corominas treats it in the article on caliente, with calentar and calentura as its family.^[4] The same Latin noun is Catalan calor, Occitan calor, French chaleur, Italian calore, Galician calor and Portuguese calor.^[7][1][8]

The Latin noun is formed on caleō (“to be warm”) with the suffix -or.^[9][1] De Vaan derives the verb from *kalē- and *ḱlh₁-eh₁- (“to be hot”), a stative verb, with cognates in clyd (“warm”) and šiltas (“warm”).^[10]

The old variant calura is the base of caluroso, recorded in 1438.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Razón de amor (dated between about 1205 and 1250, in a copy of 1250–1260) describes a spring so cold that within a hundred paces non sintryades la calor “you would not feel the heat”.^[2] The DEMel and the CDH both put it first.^[11][2] Corominas starts with Berceo, where an oven gives out sobeio grant calor “very great heat”.^[11][4][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose used the word for the heat of the sun or fire and for the feverish heat of the body, a malautia de calor in a text of 1259.^[13] Figurative uses were early: Covarrubias in 1611 has dar calor a una cosa “to favour and foster it”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades gives “vigour, daring” and “haste, diligence”.^[14][3] The Academy added the sense “favour, warm welcome” in 1869, and in 1899 a physical definition, a force that expands bodies and melts solids.^[15][16] The DLE now defines heat in physics as energy passing from one body to another.^[5]

The feminine is now rustic or archaic, but survives in Andalusia and in parts of the Americas.^[5][17] Regional senses include “sexual heat of an animal” in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, “shame, embarrassment” in Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay, and “great anger” in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.^[18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1205–1250 – la calor in the Razón de amor.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses calor; the BDELC's first date.^[6][12]
• 1259 – an illness de calor, of the body's heat, in Alfonso X's prose.^[13]
• 1438 – caluroso, from the old variant calura, in the Corbacho.^[4]
• 1495 – Nebrija's dictionary has calor natural “natural heat” and calor o calura del sol.^[20][21]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records dar calor “to favour”.^[14]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes that some make the word feminine.^[3]
• 1899 – the Academy gives a definition from physics.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sensation felt when the temperature is high; heat, warmth: Con este calor no se puede dormir.^[5][1]
2. High temperature, hot weather: Aquel verano hizo un calor terrible.^[5][17]
3. Eagerness, activity, liveliness.^[5]
4. Favour, a warm welcome.^[5]
5. enthusiasm, vehemence; affection: Le faltó el calor de una familia.^[5]
6. The hottest, liveliest part of an action: en el calor de la discusión.^[5]
7. (physics) Energy that passes from one body to another and makes them expand or change state.^[5][23]
8. (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay) Shame, embarrassment.^[18]

Word family

• acalorar
• calorina

Related words

• caliente
• calentar
• caluroso
• caloría
• calórico
• Latin caleō

Usage notes

In Andalusia and parts of Latin America the word is also used as a feminine, la calor.^[5][1] Set phrases include entrar en calor “to become animated, warm up” and calor canicular “sweltering heat”.^[24][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. calor
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 76
4. ^ 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, 764
5. ^ 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. calor
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caliente
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. calor
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. calor
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. calor
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. calor
12. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 203
13. ^ 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. calor
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. 389
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 136
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 176
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. calor
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. calor
19. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. calor
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 309
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. calor
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. calor
23. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. calor
24. ^ 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, 452