dureza

Forms

dureza f (plural durezas)^[1] Old Spanish also had durez, and Juan Ruiz wrote duresa.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dūritia (“hardness”).^[5][1][6][7] The Latin noun is formed from dūrus (“hard”) with the suffix -itia.^[8][1] Corominas lists the word, with the older form durez, among the derivatives of duro, and Wikcionario explains it as a Spanish formation with the suffix -eza.^[2][9]

The same Latin noun is Portuguese dureza, Galician dureza, Old Occitan dureza, Italian durezza and older Catalan durea, today duresa.^[6][7][10]

De Vaan derives the adjective from *duéh₂ro- (“far, long”), the source of Sanskrit and Avestan words for far.^[11] Wiktionary gives this view with its semantic problem, and an alternative root *deru- (“hard, firm”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) uses the plural for harsh words: Fablo el sennor de la tierra connusco durezas “the lord of the land spoke harshly to us”.^[12][3]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, hardness, appears in the falconry book Moamín (1250), on padding perches against their hardness, and in Alfonso X's Lapidario on the hardness of stones.^[12][13] Moral senses were there from the start: dureza de coraçon in the Poridat de poridades and the Libro de los buenos proverbios, and the obstinacy of a claimant in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the physical sense, obstinacy, harshness to the senses and a term of painting for a lack of delicacy, with the phrases dureza de estilo, dureza de oído and dureza de vientre.^[14] Terreros added cruelty and inhumanity, and the Academy's 1817 edition the medical sense, a hard tumour or callus.^[15][16] The mineralogical sense, resistance to being scratched by another mineral, came in with the 1899 edition.^[17] Today the word is also used of the hardness of water.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the plural durezas in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón speaks of the dureza of a claimant.^[12]
• 1250 – the Moamín uses it of hard perches.^[12]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz has the form duresa.^[4]
• 1490 – Palencia's vocabulary: Corominas's first record.^[2][18]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “hardnes”.^[19]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the medical sense.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the mineralogical sense.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. hardness, the quality of being hard; also harshness, severity: Le habló con una dureza que no esperábamos.^[5][1][20]
2. A hard swelling or callus (callosidad) in some part of the body.^[5][20]
3. (geology) The resistance of a mineral to being scratched by another.^[5]

Related words

• duro
• endurecer
• Latin dūritia
• Portuguese dureza

Usage notes

Dureza de vientre is constipation, and dureza del agua the quality of hard water.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 538
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. dureza
4. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. s.v. dureza
5. ^ 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. dureza
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2806
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2380
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dūritia
9. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. dureza
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. duresa
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. dureza
13. ^ 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. dureza
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. dureza
15. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 710
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 339
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 373
18. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. duro
19. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 123
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos