cosa

Forms

cosa f (plural cosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin causa (“cause, reason; matter, question”), and Old Spanish cosa has the same form.^[2][3][4][1] In Vulgar Latin the word, starting from the sense “matter, affair”, became a synonym of rēs (“thing”) as early as the 4th century AD.^[2][3] The DHLF links the change to the frequent use of the two Latin words side by side in legal language.^[5] Medieval Latin texts use the word for “thing, property”.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese coisa, Galician cousa, Asturian cosa, Catalan cosa, Occitan causa, French chose and Italian cosa.^[8][9][1] Spanish later borrowed the Latin word again as the learned doublet causa.^[9][1]

De Vaan notes that the Latin noun was spelt with ⟨ss⟩ in inscriptions until the 1st century BC, and that Walde and Hofmann connect it with cūdō (“to strike”), whereas Ernout and Meillet doubt an Indo-European origin.^[10] Wiktionary also gives its further origin as unknown.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, have the first record.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) Burgos is forbidden to sell the Cid todas cosas cuantas son de vianda “all things that are food”.^[11] The sense is “thing, object” from the start.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word developed many grammaticalised uses.^[2] In negative sentences it came to mean “nothing”, from Alfonso X to Tirso de Molina, and still does in Aragonese.^[2][13] It could also mean “person”, as in the Crónica sarracina of about 1430.^[2] In the Golden Age cosa que… meant “lest”, and in Argentina popular cosa de means “so as to”.^[2] Berceo uses it for “matter”, “miracle” and even “life”.^[14]

Covarrubias in 1611 explained the riddle formula ¿qué es cosa y cosa? “what is it?”, the source of quisicosa.^[15][16] Autoridades follows Alejo Venegas and Covarrubias in deriving cosa from causa.^[17] In several Central and South American countries cosa is a euphemism for the sexual organs and for menstruation.^[18] In Argentina the masculine coso is used for something whose name one doesn't recall;^[2] Corominas takes it from Italian.^[2]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses have the first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses cosas for things to eat.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses cosa for “nothing” in a negative sentence.^[13]
• c. 1430 – cosa is used for “person” in the Crónica sarracina.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives cosa y cosa as Latin aenigma “riddle”.^[19]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias discusses cosicosa and the phrase no vale cosa “it is worth nothing”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. thing: whatever exists, bodily or spiritual, natural or artificial, concrete, abstract or virtual: Tengo muchas cosas que contarte.^[4][1]
2. An inanimate object, as opposed to a living being.^[4]
3. A matter, subject or business: Esa es otra cosa.^[4]
4. (law) The object of legal relations, as opposed to a person; a material object; property.^[4]
5. (in negative sentences) Nothing: No vale cosa.^[22][15]
6. (in the plural) One's belongings; events, the way things go: Guarda tus cosas en el armario.^[23]
7. (informal) A living being, a person.^[1]
8. (Latin America, euphemism) The sexual organs; menstruation.^[18]

Word family

• cosita
• cosilla
• quisicosa

Related words

• causa
• French chose
• Portuguese coisa

Usage notes

Set phrases include cosa de “about, roughly” (cosa de una hora), como si tal cosa “as if nothing had happened” and cosa del otro jueves “something extraordinary”.^[24][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 219
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cosa
4. ^ a b c d e 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. cosa
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chose
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. causa
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. casa
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. causa
9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1556
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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cosa
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. 800
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. cosa
14. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 260
15. ^ 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. 524
16. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 107
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 635
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. cosa
19. ^ 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. cosa
20. ^ 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. cosa
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 300
22. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cosa
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cosa
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 202