desangrar

Forms

desangrar (first-person singular present desangro, first-person singular preterite desangré, past participle desangrado)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas lists it among the derivatives of sangre, and his Breve diccionario treats it as formed from Spanish des- + sangrar, with a date of 1604.^[2][3] Bénaben likewise explains it as the simple verb with an intensive prefix, as the Diccionario de Autoridades had done.^[4][5] The DLE, Moliner, Wiktionary and García de Diego instead derive it from Late Latin dēsanguināre.^[6][7][1][8] Echegaray compared French dessaigner and Italian disanguinare.^[9]

The simple verb continues Latin sanguinō (“to bleed”), from sanguis (“blood”).^[3][10][1] The REW lists its other Romance outcomes: Romanian sângera, Italian sanguinare, French saigner, Occitan sagnar and Portuguese sangrar.^[11] Catalan sagnar has the same source.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH has the participle first in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a copy of the early 15th century): yazié mucho buen omne muerto e desangrado “many a good man lay dead and drained of blood”.^[13][14] The first record in a text without a later copy is the Libro de los caballos (c. 1275), on treating a horse: dessangran lo mas que pueden “they bleed it as much as they can”.^[13] These records put the verb more than three centuries before the Breve diccionario's date of 1604.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for a wounded opponent who is left to lose blood until he weakens.^[15] Covarrubias described in 1611 the blood that flows from a wound, and noted that penitents who whip themselves often lose much blood.^[16]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave three senses: to draw a great deal of blood from someone, to drain off much water from a river or lake, and, figuratively, to impoverish someone by spending their wealth little by little.^[5] The Academy's 1817 edition added the reflexive use, and Domínguez in 1846–1847 also had “to wash out bloodstains”.^[17][18] In the Americas the verb is recorded in Mexico City in 1532, and in 1619 for rivers in flood drained off into other channels.^[19]

In medicine desangrar competes with the learned synonym exanguinar.^[20] In Cuba it also means to strip the thick ribs from tobacco leaves, and desangrar el cloche is to bleed the air from a clutch.^[6][21]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has desangrado (in an early 15th-century copy).^[13]
• c. 1275 – the Libro de los caballos uses the verb for bleeding a horse.^[13]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España writes dessangrar.^[15]
• 1532 – the first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1604 – the Breve diccionario's date of first record.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines desangrar and desangrado.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “drain water” and “impoverish”.^[5]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary notes the reflexive use.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw a great deal of blood from a person or animal, to bleed: El carnicero desangra el cordero antes de despiezarlo.^[6][1]
2. To drain a lake, pond or similar body of water.^[6][7]
3. (figurative) To impoverish someone by draining away their money or property: Los pleitos desangraron a la familia.^[6][7]
4. (Cuba) To remove the thick ribs from a tobacco leaf.^[6]
5. (reflexive, desangrarse) To lose much or all of one's blood, to bleed to death.^[6][1]

Word family

• desangramiento
• desangre

Related words

• sangre
• sangría
• Latin sanguis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 151
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sangre
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. desangrar
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 229
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. desangrar
7. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desangrar
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2209
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 689
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7571
12. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. sagnar
13. ^ 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. desangrar
14. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. desangrar
15. ^ 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. desangrar
16. ^ 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. 650
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 291
18. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 563
19. ^ 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. desangrar
20. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. desangrar
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. desangrar