cortar

Forms

cortar (first-person singular present corto, first-person singular preterite corté, past participle cortado)^[1] In Galician, Asturian and Pyrenean speech the verb has the form curtar.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin curtō (“to shorten, cut down”), a verb formed on curtus (“cut short, truncated”).^[3][4][1][2] The Academy's 1884 dictionary derived it from corto as well as from the Latin verb, and Lanchetas called it a verb formed on the adjective.^[5][6]

The Latin verb lives on as Portuguese cortar, Galician cortar and Asturian curtar.^[2][7][8] Elsewhere it survives mostly in compounds, such as Romanian scurta and French écourter.^[8]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *korto- and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥-to- (“cut off”), with the Latin change of ⟨or⟩ to ⟨ur⟩ before a consonant.^[9] The root is disputed: Walde–Hofmann derive it from *(s)ker- “to cut off”, while Ernout–Meillet and Meiser connect it with *kʷer- (“to cut”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses it of a sword stroke: diol' tal espadada con el so diestro braço, cortól' por la cintura “he gave him such a blow with his right arm that he cut him through at the waist”.^[10][11] The Breve diccionario also dates it c. 1140.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses it for “to stop, cut off the course of something” and for “to lay waste” a territory.^[12] In 1611 Covarrubias recorded cortar el hilo “to break off”, cortar a uno de vestir “to gossip about someone” and cortarse “to become confused”.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the military sense “to cut off troops from their side”, and the Academy's 1817 edition the senses “to interrupt a conversation” and “to shorten a speech”.^[14][15]

In the Americas, cortar a language meant to speak it well: a 1532 text from Mexico City says that someone spoke and cortava like a native.^[16] The Academy keeps this sense in cortar bien.^[4] Regional senses include “to take a shortcut” across country (Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina), “to break off a friendship” in the slang of young people in Mexico and the River Plate, and “to stop attending a meeting” in Mexico.^[17][18] In Puerto Rico cortar also means “to adulterate a drug”, a sense taken from English to cut.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[10][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of a man with his head cut off (cabeça cortada).^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin scindo, seco and caedo.^[20]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, from Tierra Firme.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records cortar de vestir “to speak ill of someone”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “to interrupt a conversation”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “de corto; lat. curtare” and adds the tailoring and quill senses.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut, divide or separate something with a sharp instrument: Cortó el pan en rebanadas.^[4][1]
2. To cut out the pieces of a garment or shoe.^[4]
3. To trim a quill pen for writing.^[4]
4. To cleave a fluid: El velero cortaba las olas.^[4]
5. To divide one area from another: El río corta la comarca en dos.^[4]
6. To cut the deck of cards.^[4]
7. Of the wind or cold: to be so piercing that it seems to cut the skin.^[4]
8. To shorten a distance; to take a shortcut.^[4][17]
9. To stop, block or hinder the course of something.^[4]
10. To leave out part of a speech, sermon or play.^[4]
11. To mix one liquid with another to change its strength or taste.^[4]
12. (reflexive) Of milk: to curdle.^[21]
13. To hang up a telephone call.^[1]
14. (reflexive) To cut oneself; to have one's hair cut.^[1][21]
15. (Mexico, Nicaragua, Bolivia, River Plate, colloquial) To break off a friendship or relationship.^[17][1]

Word family

• cortabolsas
• cortacésped
• cortadura
• cortafuegos
• cortapisa
• cortaplumas
• cortaúñas
• cortavientos
• recortar
• cortador
• corte
• acortar
• entrecortar
• cortante
• cortadera

Related words

• corto
• Latin curtus
• Portuguese cortar
• English curtail

Usage notes

Phrases include cortar bien “to speak a language clearly and correctly”, cortar de vestir “to gossip about someone” and cortar un pelo en el aire “to be very sharp-witted”.^[4][13][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2052
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. corto
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. cortar
5. ^ 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. 299
6. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. cortar
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1005
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2418
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. curtus
10. ^ 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. cortar
11. ^ 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. 797
12. ^ 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. cortar
13. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 523
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 625
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 247
16. ^ 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. cortar
17. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cortar
18. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 262
19. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. cortar
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 319
21. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. cortar
22. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. s.v. cortar