celo

celo¹ zeal; heat

Pronunciation

• /ˈθelo/, [ˈθe.lo], /ˈselo/^[1]

Forms

celo m (plural celos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for zeal is borrowed from Latin zēlus (“zeal, emulation; jealousy”), which is from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “emulation, rivalry; zeal”).^[2][3][4] Corominas and Vox treat it as a learned borrowing of the 13th century.^[2][5] Wiktionary calls it inherited.^[1] The Latin noun is a late borrowing from Greek, found from Vitruvius on.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Italian zelo, French zèle, Occitan zel and Catalan zel.^[8][9] Portuguese has both cio “(of animals) heat”, the old popular form, and the remade zelo “zeal”.^[10][11][12]

The Academy and Corominas derive the Greek noun from ζέω (zéō, “to boil”).^[3][2] Beekes instead puts it with ζητέω (zētéō, “to seek”) and δίζημαι (dízēmai, “to seek out”), from a root that may be Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂- (“to pursue”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1220–1250.^[2] An early passage is in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy), where spring sets birds and beasts en çelos andar “going in heat”.^[14] The Psalter of Herman the German (c. 1240–1272) has the sense “zeal”: el celo de Tu casa me comió “the zeal of your house consumed me”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses celo for zeal for the faith, for jealousy (in the plural, los celos de las mugeres) and for the heat of animals and birds.^[15] In the 14th and 15th centuries buen celo meant a good intention, as in López de Ayala's Rimado de palacio (1385).^[16] Covarrubias in 1611 still glossed the word as “intention”.^[17]

The Academy's 19th-century editions define it as diligence in fulfilling one's duties, as loving care for the glory of God and the good of souls, as the mating urge of animals and, in the plural, as the suspicion that a loved one's affection has turned to someone else.^[18][19] In Mexico it is also a disparaging colloquial word for a woman's fertile period.^[3]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the first record, according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy) uses çelos of animals in heat.^[14]
• c. 1240–1272 – Herman the German's Psalter has el celo de Tu casa “the zeal of your house”.^[14]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses celos for jealousy.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin zelus and zelotypia for celos.^[20]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of cats that andan en celo.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains celo as “intention”: hazer una cosa con buen zelo.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters the word under the spelling zelo.^[22]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin zelus from Greek.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. care, diligence, the effort someone puts into doing something well: Revisó las cuentas con mucho celo.^[3][23]
2. zeal: an intense, active devotion to a cause or a person.^[3][1]
3. (usually in the plural) envy of another's good fortune, or fear that someone else will gain what one has or wants.^[3]
4. (of animals) heat, the sexual urge, and the season in which animals feel it: La perra está en celo.^[3][1][5]
5. (Mexico, colloquial, derogatory) A woman's fertile period, when ovulation occurs.^[3]
6. (in the plural) jealousy: suspicion or fear that the person one loves cares for someone else.^[3][1]

Word family

• celoso
• celosía

celo² sticky tape

Pronunciation

• /ˈθelo/, [ˈθe.lo], /ˈselo/^[1]

Forms

celo m (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

The word for sticky tape is borrowed from English cellotape, clipped to its first part.^[3][1][5] The English word comes from the trade name Sellotape, which Vox explains as formed from cellulose and tape.^[3][5] Wikcionario derives the Spanish word from a trade name spelt Cellotape.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Spain) sticky tape, Sellotape: a transparent strip of cellulose or plastic, sticky on one side, used to stick paper and other things.^[3][1][5]