capuzar

Forms

capuzar (first-person singular present capuzo, first-person singular preterite capucé, past participle capuzado)^[1]

Etymology

The DLE derives it from Latin caput (“head”) and *puteāre (“to submerge”), the latter from puteus (“well”).^[2][3][4] García de Diego likewise sets up a Latin combination meaning “to sink the head”, and lists the dialect forms campuzar of Granada and the noun capuzón.^[5]

Corominas treats it as a derivative of the Latin word for the head, matching Catalan cabussar, the usual verb for “to dive” in Catalan and Occitan since the Middle Ages.^[6] He takes it as a word of the eastern dialects of Castilian: the Academy gives the noun for a dive as Murcian and capucete as Aragonese, he heard the verb in Almería, and Enrique de Villena, whose Spanish is full of Catalan-influenced words, uses it in his 15th-century translation of the Aeneid.^[6] In his view it is also the source of the ⟨u⟩ of its synonym chapuzar, which continues Old Spanish sopozar, zapuzar, a derivative of pozo with the prefix so- “under”.^[6][7] Barcia argued the reverse, that the form with ⟨ch⟩ was a corruption of this one.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the verb, beside sapozar, in 13th-century biblical manuscripts.^[6] He also quotes a late morisco text, in which a linen rag is dipped in saffron: tomó un trapo de liño y capuzólo en el cafrán “he took a linen rag and dipped it in the saffron”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso de Valdés (1529) uses the participle figuratively, of men capuzados “sunk” in earthly things.^[9] The Academy's dictionary has the verb from 1817, as a synonym of chapuzar, without a region.^[6][10] Domínguez (1846) adds the nautical sense, to load a ship so that she draws more water at the bow.^[11] In 1769 a Guatemalan text uses it for bathing in a river.^[12]

Timeline

• 1200s – the verb appears in biblical manuscripts.^[6]
• 1400s – Enrique de Villena uses it in his translation of the Aeneid.^[6]
• 1529 – Alfonso de Valdés uses the participle capuzados figuratively.^[9]
• 1769 – the first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[12]
• 1817 – first in the Academy's dictionary, as a synonym of chapuzar.^[6][10]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the nautical sense.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Latin caput.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To duck someone head first or suddenly into water (chapuzar); (pronominal) to dive in head first: Los chicos se capuzaban desde la roca.^[2][4][1]
2. (transitive) To plunge a thing suddenly into water.^[4]
3. (transitive, nautical) To load a ship so that she draws more water at the bow (proa).^[2][11]

Word family

• capuzón

Related words

• cabeza
• Latin caput
• Catalan cabussar

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. capuzar
3. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. capuzar
4. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. capuzar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. capuzar
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 333
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. chapuzar
8. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 762
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. capuzar
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 175
11. ^ a b c 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. 336
12. ^ 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. capuzar
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 193