dolor

Forms

dolor m (plural dolores)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish dolor, inherited from Latin dolor (“pain, grief”).^[2][1][3][4] Wikcionario calls it a learned word, but Wiktionary and the other sources give it as inherited;^[5][1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of doler without comment.^[5][1][6]

The same word is Portuguese dor (old door), Catalan dolor, Occitan dolor, French douleur and Italian dolore.^[7][8][1]

dolor is formed from Latin doleō (“to be in pain”) + -or.^[1][9] De Vaan derives doleō from a causative Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁-éye- of the root Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to split, chop”), “to make someone feel split”, pain being felt as being torn apart.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the men and women of the town weep at their windows: plorando de los ojos, tanto avién el dolor “weeping from their eyes, so great was their grief”.^[11][4] The first sense recorded is thus grief, not bodily pain.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the word for bodily pain and for sorrow of the soul, as in dolor de la media cabeza “migraine” and dolor de puntas “stabbing pain”.^[12] For Berceo it could also mean the sin from which mankind is redeemed.^[13] Covarrubias (1611) recorded the old phrase ¡ay dolor, y dolor de ti!, an expression of regret.^[14] Autoridades (1732) gives bodily pain, anguish and repentance (tener dolor de sus pecados).^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has dolor de costado, estar con dolores “to be in labour” and the proverb dolor de mujer muerta dura hasta la puerta, on how little some men grieve for a dead wife.^[16]

The women's name Dolores comes from María de los Dolores, recorded in 1676.^[17] In Costa Rica un dolor is also a fussy or arrogant person.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has dolor “grief”.^[11][3]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca has gran dolor.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses la dolor for bodily pain.^[12]
• 1335 – the derivative doloroso is first recorded.^[3]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, dolor de costado in Mexico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the phrase ¡ay dolor!.^[14]
• 1732 – Autoridades adds the sense “repentance”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, “Del lat. dolor”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. pain, ache: an unpleasant, distressing sensation in a part of the body from an internal or external cause: Tengo un dolor fuerte en la rodilla.^[2][1]
2. grief, sorrow, anguish: Sintió un gran dolor al despedirse de su hermano.^[2][1]
3. (plural) Labour pains, in estar con dolores.^[21]
4. (Costa Rica, colloquial) A fussy or arrogant person.^[18]

Word family

• doloroso
• dolorido
• adolorido
• indoloro
• dolora

Related words

• adolecer
• doler
• dolido
• doliente
• duelo
• Latin dolor
• Portuguese dor

Usage notes

Old Spanish often made the word feminine, la dolor, as Alfonso X's Lapidario does.^[12][22] Dolor de corazón is the sorrow of having offended God.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. dolor
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. doler
4. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 220
5. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. dolor
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 513
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. dolor
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1234
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dolor
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. doleo
11. ^ 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. dolor
12. ^ 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. dolor
13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 308
14. ^ 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. 686
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 330
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 334
17. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 238
18. ^ 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. dolor
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. dolor
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. 398
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dolor
22. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 196