enjugar

Forms

enjugar (first-person singular present enjugo, first-person singular preterite enjugué, past participle enjugado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote enxugar (enxugaron, enxugue), and the Primera crónica general has the variant ensugar, still used in Asturian.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish enxugar, inherited from Late Latin exsūcāre (“to deprive of juice”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and sūcus (“juice, sap”), and is found in Latin from Vitruvius on.^[3][1] Wiktionary notes that Spanish replaced the Latin prefix by en-.^[1] Corominas compares jugo and enjuto.^[3]

The word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese enxugar, Galician enxugar, Asturian ensugar, Aragonese axugar, Catalan eixugar, Old Occitan eisugar, French essuyer, Italian asciugare and Romanian usca.^[3][6][7][8] García de Diego also lists Salamancan and Cantabrian desugar.^[6]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Indo-European *souḱ-o- (“juice”), of the same root as sūgō (“to suck”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to about 1250, in the Libro de Apolonio, where shipwrecked men light a fire and enxugaron sus panyos “dried their clothes”.^[3][2] The CDH dates the poem c. 1240, in a copy of the mid-14th century.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of drying the moisture that runs down to the eyes.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant “to dry” throughout its history, and Corominas notes that in some regions ordinary speakers now use it little.^[3] Nebrija (c. 1495) gives Latin sicco and exsicco for enxugar, and the reflexive for “to dry up, wither”.^[11] Cervantes still wrote enxugar beside enjugad.^[12]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary defines it as drying something wet, especially clothes, and wiping away tears, sweat or the water on the hands or face.^[13] In 1843 it added the reflexive “to lose weight”, and Domínguez (1846–1847) recorded enjugar las lágrimas a alguien “to console someone”.^[14][15] The modern dictionaries add “to cancel a debt or wipe out a deficit” and, in sport, “to make up a difference in goals or points”.^[5][16] In Leonese and Asturian the verb also says that a cow has stopped giving milk.^[17][18]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – first record, in the Libro de Apolonio: enxugaron sus panyos.^[3][2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses enxugando.^[10]
• c. 1275 – the Libro de los caballos has enxugue, the first example in the CDH from a contemporary witness.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records enxugar and enxugarse.^[11]
• 1538 – first record in the Americas, in Lima: enxugar sus balças.^[19]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the reflexive sense “to lose weight”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from en- and jugo.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To dry the surface moisture of something by soaking it up with a cloth, sponge or the like: Enjuga los vasos antes de guardarlos.^[5][1]
2. (transitive, also reflexive) To wipe away tears, sweat or other moisture from the body: enjugarse el sudor de la frente.^[5][1]
3. (transitive, also reflexive) To cancel a debt or wipe out a deficit.^[5][1]
4. (reflexive) To lose some weight, grow thinner.^[5]

Word family

• enjugador

Related words

• jugo
• enjuto
• Latin sūcus
• Catalan eixugar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. enjugar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 632
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. enjugar
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. enjugar
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2596
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3073
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 263
9. ^ 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 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. enjugar
11. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. enjugar
12. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 465
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 363
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 299
15. ^ 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. 695
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. enjugar
17. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. enjugar
18. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. ensugar
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. enjugar
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. 431