cruel

Forms

cruel m or f (masculine and feminine plural crueles)^[1] The oldest texts have crudel, beside cruel.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crūdēlis (“cruel”).^[4][5][1] The older form Old Spanish crudel of the earliest texts still kept the Latin /d/, which the modern form has lost.^[6][2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese cruel, Galician cruel, Asturian cruel, Catalan cruel, Occitan cruzel and Italian crudele.^[7][1] The DHLF considers French cruel remade on the Latin, or continuing a popular form also seen in Old French crual.^[8]

The Latin adjective is formed from crūdus (“raw, bloody”) with the suffix -ēlis.^[9][1] De Vaan reconstructs the adjective, with a query, as Proto-Indo-European *kreuh₂-odʰ-o- (“raw”), and finds the competing pre-forms hard to justify.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Liber regum (1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century) calls Nebuchadnezzar mal rei e crudel, “a bad and cruel king”.^[6][3] The modern form crueles appears in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar and in Berceo, who writes of the ángel cruel that would not pass a door marked with blood.^[2][6] The BDELC dates the word 1220–1250.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the main senses: of a person who delights in making others suffer, of something unbearable or excessive, of a bloody battle, and of something fierce or frightful.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 gave muerte cruel for a death inflicted pitilessly and cruel batalla for a very bloody one, and noted that poets call love cruel.^[12] The Academy's dictionaries from 1817 define the figurative senses with hace un frío cruel and batalla cruel.^[13]

Cuervo quotes the learned superlative crudelísimo from classical authors.^[14] In the Americas the word is first recorded in New Granada in 1588.^[15] In Asturian cruel can also describe a very cold day.^[16]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – crudel in the Liber regum.^[6]
• 1220–1250 – the BDELC's date, with the derivative crueldad.^[4]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas uses crueles of violent men.^[11]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses cruel with Latin crudus and crudelis.^[17]
• 1588 – first record in the Americas, in New Granada.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains muerte cruel and cruel batalla.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the senses “unbearable” and “bloody”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cruel: taking pleasure in causing suffering, or enjoying others' pain.^[5][1]
2. Unbearable, excessive: Pasamos un calor cruel.^[5][18]
3. Bloody, harsh, violent: una guerra cruel.^[5][19]

Word family

• cruelmente
• crueldad

Related words

• crudo
• Latin crūdēlis
• Portuguese cruel

Usage notes

Cruel has two syllables in careful speech and in verse, /kɾuˈel/, but is often pronounced as one, /ˈkɾwel/.^[1] The superlative is cruelísimo or the learned crudelísimo.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cruel
3. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. s.v. cruel
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. crudo
5. ^ a b c d 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. cruel
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cruel
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. crūdēlis
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cruel
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. crūdēlis
10. ^ 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. crūdus
11. ^ 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. cruel
12. ^ 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. 536
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 255
14. ^ a b Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 596
15. ^ 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. cruel
16. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. cruel
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 321
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cruel
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cruel