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coso

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word coso

coso1 bullring

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid, in a 14th-century copy
Inherited from
Latin cursus via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin cursus
Etymology tree of coso1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin currō
French courir
Italian correre
Romanian curge
Spanish correr
Latin cursus
French cours
Romanian curs
Italian corso
Spanish coso
German Kurs
From the same root · coso1
Latin accurrō ← currō
Latin concurrō ← currō
Latin curriculum ← currō
Latin cursim ← currō
Latin cursō ← currō
Latin cursor ← currō
Latin cursūra ← currō
Latin dēcurrō ← currō
Latin discurrō ← currō
Latin excurrō ← currō
Latin incurrō ← currō
Latin intercurrō ← currō
Latin occurrō ← currō
Latin percurrō ← currō
Latin praecurrō ← currō
Latin prōcurrō ← currō
Latin recurrō ← currō
Latin succurrō ← currō
Latin transcurro ← currō
Romanian discurs ← currō
French courant ← courir
Italian corridoio ← correre
Romanian decurge ← curge
Spanish corredor ← correr
English corsair ← cursus
Latin cursārius ← cursus
Latin cursīvus ← cursus
French course ← cours
Romanian cursoare ← curs
Italian corsa ← corso

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkoso/, [ˈko.so][1]

Forms

coso m (plural cosos)[1] Old Spanish wrote cosso.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the bullring is inherited from Old Spanish cosso, inherited from Latin cursus (“a running, course”).[4][1][5] Corominas calls it the popular doublet of corso and of the learned curso, and compares Catalan cós “race; enclosed ground”.[6] The same Latin word is Portuguese cosso, Italian corso, French cours and Romanian curs.[7][1]

The Latin word is the action noun of currō (“to run”), the source of correr.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), after the Cid's run on his horse Babieca: En cabo del cosso mio Cid descavalgava “at the end of the course my Cid dismounted”.[10][2][11] The sense is “run, course”.[11]

Semantic evolution

The fueros of the 13th century use cosso for the place where races and festivities were held: the Fuero de Usagre has nec exeat cauallera ad cosso ipso die.[10][12][6] Nebrija about 1495 defined cosso as the place where the bull is run, and Covarrubias in 1611 explained the name by the running of bulls there.[13][14] In some towns it became the name of the main street, as in Zaragoza.[4][15]

The Academy marked the word as regional in 1843.[16] Terreros had already noted in 1786 that Madrid called it plaza de toros.[17] Today coso or coso taurino is a somewhat formal word for a bullring.[15][9] In the Canaries coso also means a parade or cavalcade, especially in Tenerife.[18] In Colombia it has meant a pound for stray animals.[19]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has en cabo del cosso.[10][2]
  • 1202–1214 – the Fuero de Madrid has coso.[2]
  • 1242–1275 – the Fuero de Usagre uses cosso for a public square for festivities.[6][12]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as the place where the bull is run.[13]
  • 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.[20]
  • 1582 – Argote de Molina uses it for “course, run”.[6]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias calls it the square or field where bulls are fought.[14]
  • 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin cursus and the sense “main street”.[21]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An enclosed square or ground where bulls are fought and other public festivities are held; a bullring.[4][1]
  2. The main street in some towns, as in Zaragoza.[4]
  3. (obsolete) A course, run or current.[4][1]

coso2 woodworm

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1729 Diccionario de Autoridades
Inherited from
Latin cossus
Ultimate origin
Latin cossus

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkoso/, [ˈko.so][1]

Forms

coso m (plural cosos)[1]

Etymology

The word for the woodworm is inherited from Latin cossus (“woodworm, larva”).[4][1][21] García de Diego places it beside a variant cusus in the Latin glossaries.[22] The Latin word gave Italian cosso “pimple, wart” and Romanian coș, and with a suffix French cosson “weevil”.[7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain;[1] Wiktionary lists proposed connections with Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”) and others.[1] García de Diego and the REW also derive gusano from it, but Corominas finds that link very doubtful and takes that word to be pre-Roman.[22][7][23]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Autoridades of 1729 is the first record in our sources: a large grub that lives in the trunks of fruit trees such as apple, pear and fig, eaten stewed with flour, illustrated with Huerta's translation of Pliny.[3]

Semantic evolution

Terreros gave the Latin and French equivalents and the phrase taladrado del coso “bored by the woodworm”.[17] The Academy kept the 1729 definition through the 19th century, and in 1884 gave it a separate entry from Latin cossus.[16][21] The DLE now refers it to carcoma, the woodworm beetle.[4]

Timeline

  • 1729 – the Autoridades describes the grub of fruit trees.[3]
  • 1786 – Terreros records taladrado del coso.[17]
  • 1884 – the Academy gives it its own entry, from Latin cossus.[21]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The carcoma, a woodworm beetle.[4][1]
  • acosar
  • curso
  • corso
  • Latin cursus
  • Latin cossus

Usage notes

A third coso, a masculine form of cosa, is used colloquially in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay and the Río de la Plata for a thing or person whose name one does not know or wish to say: pasame ese coso.[1][24][25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. coso
  3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 639
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. coso
  5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cursus
  6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 208
  7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. coso
  10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. coso
  11. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 135
  12. ^ a b 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. 802
  13. ^ a b 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. coso
  14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 526
  15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. coso
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 203
  17. ^ a b c Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 539
  18. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. coso
  19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 406
  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. coso
  21. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 301
  22. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cossis
  23. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 287
  24. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. coso
  25. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. coso

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Coso.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/coso. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·