curioso

Forms

curioso (feminine curiosa, masculine plural curiosos, feminine plural curiosas)^[1] Old Spanish also had a form curoso, in Aragonese texts and in Santillana and Villena, which Corominas calls Catalanising.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cūriōsus (“careful; eager to know”), a learned word.^[2][4][1][5] The Latin adjective is formed from cūra (“care”) with the suffix -ōsus,^[6] although Leumann, cited by de Vaan, explains it as a back-formation from incūriōsus (“careless”).^[7][1] De Vaan finds the further origin of the Latin noun uncertain; it would fit the meaning of Proto-Indo-European *kʷei- (“to take notice, heed”).^[7]

The same learned word is Catalan curiós,^[8] Portuguese curioso, of the 14th century,^[9] and Asturian curiosu, which in Asturian means mainly “handy, tidy, good-looking”.^[10] Its relatives in Spanish include cura, curar and seguro.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Libro de las formas y de las ymágenes (1276–1279) already has the sense “prying”: a figure made pora seer muy curioso de cosas agenas “to make one very curious about other people's affairs”.^[11][3] The Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) has curoso “careful” of a creditor who looks after his own interests.^[3] Corominas dates the form curioso to Alonso de Palencia (1490).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the word meant both “careful, diligent” (judges should be curiosos e diligentes in finding the truth) and “eager to know”.^[3] Covarrubias defined the curioso as one who treats something with particular care and diligence.^[12] Autoridades put first the sense “neat, elegant, painstaking”, quoting Saint Teresa on her youthful care for her looks, and also gave “one who searches out hidden things” and “one who wants to know what does not concern him”.^[13] Cuervo shows the sense “careful” in Cervantes and Lope, for instance a historiador muy curioso y muy puntual “a very careful and precise historian”.^[14] The sense “odd, interesting because rare”, of things, was in the Academy's dictionary by 1869.^[15]

In the Americas the word also describes a person skilful with their hands: Santamaría records it in his dictionaries of americanisms and of Mexican Spanish, and Román for Chile.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Aragonese form curoso in the Vidal Mayor.^[3]
• 1276–1279 – curioso “prying” in Alfonso X's Libro de las formas y de las ymágenes.^[11]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia, the first record Corominas gives.^[2][4]
• 1495 – first record of curiosidad.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin curiosus as its equivalent.^[20]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “careful, diligent”.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades puts the sense “neat, elegant” first.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy lists the sense “odd, arousing curiosity”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. curious, nosy: eager to find out about other people's affairs.^[5][1]
2. inquisitive: eager to learn what one does not know: un niño muy curioso.^[5][1]
3. Clean and neat.^[5]
4. Odd, interesting: drawing attention because rare or original: un caso curioso.^[5][1]
5. Typical of a curious person: Nos seguían con ojos curiosos.^[5]
6. Considerable, worth having: una suma curiosa.^[5]
7. (colloquial) Doing things with great skill and care.^[5]

Noun

1. An onlooker, a curious person: Los curiosos se juntaron ante el escaparate.^[5][1]
2. (Venezuela) A person who does any kind of trade.^[5]

Word family

• curiosear
• curiosidad

Related words

• cura
• curar
• curatela
• incuria
• seguro
• Latin cūriōsus

Usage notes

The DLE has a second word curioso “healer, curandero”, formed from curar, in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.^[5] DAMER and the Tesoro of Puerto Rico record it in the Caribbean and Colombia;^[19][22] Meléndez Muñoz's Yuyo (1913) says that these curiosos y curiosas were formerly called curanderos.^[19][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 295
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. curioso
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cura
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. curioso
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cūriōsus
7. ^ 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. cūra
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. curiós
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. curioso
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. curiosu
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. curioso
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. 557
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 709
14. ^ 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, 703
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 233
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 443
17. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 339
18. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 482
19. ^ 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. curioso
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 322
21. ^ 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. curioso
22. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. curioso