engrosar

Forms

engrosar (first-person singular present engrueso or engroso, first-person singular preterite engrosé, past participle engrosado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote the verb with ⟨ss⟩ (engrossar, engruessan), beside engrosar and the diphthongised engruesa.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish en- + grueso + -ar, literally “to make thick”.^[1][5][6] The Diccionario de Autoridades already analysed it in this way, and noted that the stem vowel takes a diphthong in some persons of the present.^[7]

The adjective continues Latin grossus (“thick”), which had a voiceless /s/ in Old Spanish, written ⟨ss⟩.^[8][9][10] The Latin adjective is first found in the 1st century AD and is of uncertain origin; it is often compared with its synonym crassus, and may have been a slang word.^[1] De Vaan notes that the Romance languages continue it in the sense “thick”.^[10]

Neighbouring languages made parallel verbs from the same adjective, such as Catalan engrossir, French grossir and Italian ingrossare.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century manuscript), in a verse of Isaiah: Engruesa el coraçon deste pueblo e sus oreias agravia “make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy”.^[4][2] The Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223, known from a later copy) says that the Nile makes the land of Ethiopia engrosar, so that it bears fruit twice a year.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In 13th-century prose the verb already had its three main senses: to make something thicker (in Alfonso X's Lapidario), to grow fat (of hawks in the Moamín, of birds fattening before winter), and to increase.^[3][4] The Fuero General de Navarra uses it for fattening pigs.^[4] Covarrubias in 1611 quotes the saying that a base man's sight “thickens” when he rises high, so that he no longer recognises his old friends.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as making something thick and bulky, and as an intransitive verb, often with se, for trees and plants that grow and put on body.^[7] The Academy added the figurative sense “to make an army or fleet more numerous” in 1817.^[13] From 1869 it described the intransitive verb as “to put on flesh”.^[14] Terreros gives it as a synonym of condensar and engordar.^[15] Nautical dictionaries record it for clouds that grow denser and a sea that rises.^[16][17] Today it is used above all of numbers and quantities, as of a crowd or a list that grows, and in farming for manuring the soil.^[18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – engruesa in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, known from a 13th-century manuscript.^[4][2]
• 1250 – engruessan in the Moamín, of hawks that have to be fattened.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – engrossando in Alfonso X's Lapidario, “making thicker”.^[3]
• 1545 – the first record in the BDELC.^[9]
• 1561 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it as “to make thick”.^[12]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the alternation engrossar / engruesso.^[7]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “to make more numerous”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal and figurative) To make something thicker or bulkier, to give it body: La humedad engrosó las paredes del tubo.^[21][1]
2. (transitive) To increase in number, to swell the ranks of an army, a crowd or a list: Los recién llegados engrosaron el censo del pueblo.^[21][18]
3. (intransitive) To put on flesh, to grow fatter and stouter.^[21]
4. (agriculture) To manure land.^[18]

Word family

• engrosamiento
• desengrosar

Related words

• grueso
• grosor
• grosero
• engordar

Usage notes

The verb has two conjugations: the irregular one, like contar (engrueso, engruesa), which Moliner calls almost obsolete, and the regular one (engroso, engrosa).^[18][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. engrosar
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. engrosar
4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. engrosar
5. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3146
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 474
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 223
9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grueso
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 111
12. ^ 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. 743
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 362
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 311
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. 2, 44
16. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 870
17. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 664
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. engrosar
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. engrosar
20. ^ 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. engrosar
21. ^ a b c 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. engrosar