destilar

Forms

destilar (first-person singular present destilo, first-person singular preterite destilé, past participle destilado)^[1] Alfonso X's Lapidario writes distillar and estillar;^[2] distilar was still current in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[3][4][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēstīllō (“to drip, trickle down”), a learned word.^[5][6][1][7] The Latin verb, often written distillare in the manuscripts, is formed from dē- (“down”) and stīllō (“to drip”), from stilla (“a drop”).^[8][9][10] The noun is probably a diminutive of stīria (“frozen drop, icicle”).^[11]

The same Latin verb gave the inherited destellar (“to drip”), an old word recorded from the Cid on, from which destello “flash” comes; the learned verb is its doublet and keeps the Latin meaning.^{[5][12][7][1]} The Academy's 1884 dictionary derived it from both Latin spellings, ⟨destillare⟩ and ⟨distillare⟩.^[13] The word is also Catalan destil·lar, French distiller and Italian distillare.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the learned verb to the middle of the 15th century and the DTME to 1400, but Alfonso X's Lapidario, in a manuscript of the mid-13th century, already uses it: a stone that la distillan and melt with copper gives it a fine silver colour.^[5][10][4] The same work has distillar “to let drip” (into the ears, for earache) and estillar “to distil”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the verb is used both of dripping liquids and of distilling with an alembic: a medical text before 1400 distils human blood por alanbique, and Bible translations have clouds distilen justiçia and a priest who destille de la sangre.^[4] Nebrija equates distilar with the old destellar.^[15] Autoridades in 1732 still gave first the intransitive “to flow drop by drop”, then the alembic sense and a third, passing water through a stone filter to purify it.^[2] The Academy's 1899 edition defined distillation in modern chemical terms.^[16] The figurative use, of words or a work that reveal a feeling, is in the 2001 edition and the DLE.^[17][6][18] The stone filter survives in the Americas: in Guatemala and Lima agua destilada was filtered water and the destiladera the filter stone.^[19][20] In Bolivia the verb is used of making coffee or tea by pouring boiling water through it.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – distillar and estillar in Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[4][3]
• c. 1400 – distillar of spices in the Viaje de Juan de Mandevilla;^[15] destilla por alanbique in a medical text.^[4]
• mid-15th century – Corominas's date for the learned word.^[5]
• 1495 – destilación first recorded.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives distilar o destellar, Latin distillo, destillo.^[15]
• 1512 – aguas estiladas in Puerto Rico, the first record from the Americas.^[22]
• 1732 – Autoridades records the dripping, the alembic and the filtering senses.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the sense “to filter”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To distil: heat a substance until its volatile part evaporates and then cool the vapour back into a liquid.^[6][1]
2. To obtain a substance by distilling another: Destilan ginebra del grano.^[6]
3. To exude, give off a liquid drop by drop; figuratively, to reveal a feeling or quality: Su carta destilaba amargura.^[6][18][7]
4. (dated) To filter.^[6][1]
5. (intransitive) Of a substance, to separate from another by evaporation.^[6]
6. (intransitive) Of a liquid, to ooze through a body; also figuratively.^[6]
7. (Bolivia) To make coffee or tea by passing boiling water through it.^[21]

Word family

• destilación
• destilador
• destilería
• destilable

Related words

• destellar
• destello
• instilar
• Latin stilla

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 235
3. ^ a b c 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. destilar
4. ^ 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. destilar
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. destello
6. ^ 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. destilar
7. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
10. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. destilar
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. stilla
12. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 482
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
14. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto
15. ^ a b c 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
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. destilar
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
19. ^ Batres Jáuregui, Antonio (1892), Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, Guatemala: Encuadernación y Tipografía Nacional
20. ^ Rodríguez, Zorobabel (1875), Diccionario de chilenismos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente
21. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies