calzar

Forms

calzar (first-person singular present calzo, first-person singular preterite calcé, past participle calzado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote the verb calçar as well as calzar, with forms such as calce and calçen.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish calçar, inherited from Latin calceō (“to fit with shoes, put shoes on”), a verb formed on calceus (“shoe”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The noun is a substantive use of an adjective formed on calx (“heel”) with the suffix -eus.^[1] De Vaan lists the word for “shoe” among the derivatives of the word for “heel”, and considers the comparison of the latter with Baltic and Slavic words for parts of the leg doubtful.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese calçar, Catalan calçar, French chausser, Italian calzare and Romanian încălța.^[8][9] French had it first as Old French calcer (1080) and then as chaucier (c. 1155).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to 1131.^[3][4] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), the instructions for eating the Passover lamb say vuestros pies calçados “your feet shod”.^[11] The Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy) uses it of the shoes the saint wore in her worldly life: Nunqua calçaba otras çapatas, sino de cordobán entretalladas “she never wore other shoes than ones of cut cordovan leather”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the verb meant to cover the foot, and sometimes the leg, with footwear, and was used reflexively too.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) adds a technical sense: to strengthen the lower part of something with a stronger material, as in calzar la pared, to underpin a wall, and calzar las ruedas, to fit wheels with iron tyres; it also records an obsolete noun calzar “footwear”.^[13] The Academy's 1843 edition has the phrase calzar tantos puntos, to take a given shoe size.^[14] In 1884 the Academy first gave the etymology, and listed putting on gloves or spurs and putting a wedge under a wheel or a piece of furniture.^[15]

In the thieves' cant of 1609 calzar meant to put someone in irons.^[16] The earliest record from the Americas, from Puerto Rico in 1517, speaks of calzar tools, that is, of steeling their edges.^[17] Several American countries use it for filling a tooth, and in Nicaragua and the Andes it also means to fit, of a shoe that suits the foot.^[18][19] In Mexico and Guatemala it has meant to earth up plants.^[20]

Timeline

• 1131 – first record of the verb, according to Corominas.^[3][4]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has the participle calçados “shod”.^[11]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca uses calçaba of wearing shoes.^[11]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix speaks of a man calçado sin calças “shod without hose”.^[21]
• 1328–1335 – descalzar is first recorded, in Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija gives Latin calceo for calçar los pies.^[22]
• 1517 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, of steeling tools.^[17]
• 1609 – Hidalgo records the cant sense “to put in irons”.^[16]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “to underpin, reinforce”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology from Latin.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put footwear on the foot, and sometimes the leg; also reflexive, to put on one's shoes: Se calzó deprisa y salió a la calle.^[5][1]
2. To supply someone with footwear.^[5]
3. To put on or wear gloves, spurs and the like; also reflexive.^[5]
4. To drive in a wedge to widen or fill the space between two bodies.^[5][1]
5. To wedge a piece of furniture so that it does not wobble.^[5]
6. To chock a wheel of a vehicle so that it cannot move.^[5]
7. Of firearms: to take a bullet of a given calibre.^[5]
8. To fit a new share to a plough in place of a worn one.^[5]
9. (colloquial) To have much or little intelligence.^[5]
10. (printing) To raise plates or engravings to type height with underlays.^[5]
11. (Argentina, vulgar) To land a blow.^[5]
12. (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador) To fill a tooth.^[5][18]
13. (reflexive, colloquial) To manage or control someone; to get hold of something.^[5]
14. To take a given shoe size: Mi hermano calza un cuarenta y dos.^[1][23]

Word family

• calzado
• calzador
• calce
• calzo
• descalzar
• recalzar
• socalzar

Related words

• calceta
• calcetín
• calza
• calzón
• calzoncillo
• descalzo
• Portuguese calçar
• Latin calceus

Usage notes

The colloquial phrase calzársela means to earn oneself a telling-off or a punishment.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. calzar
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 770
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. calzar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. calzar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1264
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chausser
11. ^ 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. calzar
12. ^ 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. 591
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 81
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 129
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 191
16. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 166
17. ^ a b 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. calzar
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. calzar
19. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 193
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 276
21. ^ 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. calzar
22. ^ 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. calzar
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. calzar