desnudar

Forms

desnudar (first-person singular present desnudo, first-person singular preterite desnudé, past participle desnudado)^[1] Old Spanish also had desnuar, in Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254), and the Leonese and western desnuyar, in the General estoria and the Conde Lucanor.^[2][3] Castilian and Aragonese texts also have desnuar and esnuar, with the adjectives desnuo and esnuo.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish desnudar, inherited from Latin dēnūdāre (“to lay bare, strip”).^[3][5][6] Wiktionary starts it from the altered form disnūdāre, with the prefix changed to dis-.^[1] The DHLF dates this change of prefix to the 9th century, and derives Old French desnuer from it.^[7] The verb itself is formed from Latin dē- + nūdō (“to strip”), from nūdus (“naked”).^[8][9]

Classical Latin had both the simple verb and the compound.^[3] The simple verb survived only in Old French nuer and Italian nudare, while the compound kept more life: Portuguese desnuar, Occitan desnudar, French dénuer and Italian snudare.^[3] Everywhere but in Castilian it lost ground to descendants of despoliare and expedire and to newer verbs, and Corominas thinks Castilian kept it because it went so well with the adjective desnudo.^[3]

That adjective, recorded from the Cid, replaced Old Spanish nudo, from the Latin adjective, under the influence of the verb.^[3][5] Corominas rejects two other explanations for the change: Lerch's wish to avoid a clash with nudo “knot”, and the euphemism proposed by Rohlfs and defended by Spitzer.^[3] He also rejects Cuervo's reading of the prefix des- as an intensive prefix.^[3] De Vaan derives the Latin adjective from Proto-Indo-European *nogʷs (“naked”), the source also of Ancient Greek γυμνός (gumnós) and Old English nacod.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record of the verb is a charter of 1215 in Oelschläger's list.^[3][5] He notes that a charter of 1020 quoted by Cuervo is a 13th-century translation.^[3][5] DEMel lists desnudar and desnudaua in a document of 1200 from San Juan de Burgos, and Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254) has desnuar for undressing a madman.^[10][2] The participle desnudas is already in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where the daughters of the Cid are left beaten and desnudas in the oak wood of Corpes.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X already used the verb for stripping a thing of its covering, a snake shedding its skin, and for stripping a man of his arms.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) gives the reflexive and the adverb desnudamente “plainly, without a veil”.^[12] Autoridades (1732) has the three senses “to undress”, “to strip a thing of its covering”, illustrated with desnudar los altares, los árboles, and “to lay bare what was hidden”.^[13]

The Academy added the reflexive figurative sense “to rid oneself of something”, as in desnudarse de las pasiones, by 1843.^[14] Domínguez (1846) records desnudar la espada “to unsheathe the sword” and the saying desnudar a un santo para vestir a otro, robbing Peter to pay Paul.^[15] The DLE also has the colloquial sense “to clean someone out”, robbing them or taking all their money at cards.^[6] In Honduras and the Dominican Republic it means to unmask someone in public.^[16][17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (14th-century copy) has desnudas, which Corominas counts as a record of the adjective.^[11]
• 1200 – DEMel's first record, in a document from San Juan de Burgos.^[10]
• 1215 – Corominas's first record, a charter in Oelschläger's list.^[3][5]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas has the form desnuar.^[2]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin equivalents nudo, denudo and exuo;^[18] desnudez is first recorded in the same year.^[18][5]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• 1732 – Autoridades gives the senses “to undress”, “to strip” and “to reveal”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin denudare.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To undress, to take off someone's clothes or part of them, also reflexive: Se desnudó antes de meterse en el agua.^[6][1]
2. To strip something of what covers or adorns it: El viento desnudó las ramas.^[6]
3. (colloquial) To clean someone out, robbing them or winning all their money.^[6][21]
4. (reflexive) To rid oneself of something: Decidió desnudarse de toda vanidad.^[6]
5. To unsheathe a weapon.^[21][22]
6. (Honduras, Dominican Republic) To unmask someone in public.^[16][17]

Word family

• desnudo
• desnudez
• desnudamiento

Related words

• Latin nūdus
• Portuguese desnudar
• French dénuer

Usage notes

Desnudar a un santo para vestir a otro means to solve one problem by creating another.^[15][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. desnudar
3. ^ 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, 472
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. denudare
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desnudar
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. desnudar
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. dénuer
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dēnūdō
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. desnudar
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. desnudar
12. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 659
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 201
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 252
15. ^ a b 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. 591
16. ^ 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. desnudar
17. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. desnudar
18. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 332
19. ^ 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. desnudar
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 371
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desnudar
22. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. desnudar