escocer

Forms

escocer (first-person singular present escuezo, first-person singular preterite escocí, past participle escocido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote escozer, with the present escueze.^[1][2] In Bogotá escoce and descoce were common for escuece, which Cuervo corrected.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish escozer, inherited from Latin excoquō (“to boil out; to burn away”), according to the DLE, García de Diego and Wiktionary.^[4][5][1] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and coquō (“to cook”).^[6][1] Corominas, and the Academy in 1884, treat it instead as a derivative of cocer with the prefix es-.^[7][8][9] He notes that the simple verb had earlier been used for “to smart”, as in a poem of Berceo, and as French cuire and Catalan coure still are.^[7]

The Latin verb also left Old Occitan escozer (“to irritate”) and Old Galician-Portuguese escozer (“to wound”).^[10] Wiktionary adds Italian scuocere and Romanian scoace.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

San Vicente Ferrer's sermons of 1411–1412, in a copy of 1448, compare a fleeting pleasure to the itch of a man with scabies, who enjoys scratching mas dúrale poco e después scuézele “but it lasts him little, and afterwards it smarts”.^[2] The Arcipreste de Talavera (1438, copy of 1466) has ¡cómo me escueze…! “how it stings me!”.^[2] Corominas's first record is much later, in Fray Luis de Granada (1556–1557).^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 described a burning pain that seems to cook the flesh, like a lash or wine and salt in a wound, and said that a prudent reproof stings in the same way but heals.^[11] Autoridades gave both the physical pain and the figurative sense of making someone resent a reproach.^[12] From 1843 the Academy also listed the pronominal escocerse “to feel hurt”, and in 1899 it added the chafing of the skin, especially of the groin, from sweat or fat.^[13][14] Domínguez objected in 1846 that it is the thing that escuece, not the person who feels it.^[15]

Timeline

• 1411–1412 – Vicente Ferrer's sermons have scuézele.^[2]
• 1438 – the Arcipreste de Talavera has escueze.^[2]
• 1556–1557 – Fray Luis de Granada, Corominas's first record.^[7][8]
• 1571 – a vocabulary printed in Mexico City has escozer la llaga.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines escozer.^[11]
• 1646 – the noun escozor (1616 in the BDELC).^[7][8]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the chafing of the skin.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To sting or smart: to cause a feeling like that of a burn: El alcohol en la herida escuece.^[4][17][1]
2. (intransitive) To hurt or rankle: to leave a bitter or unpleasant feeling: Le escoció mucho la derrota.^[4][17][1]
3. (pronominal) To feel hurt or aggrieved.^[4]
4. (pronominal) Of a part of the body: to become red and inflamed; to chafe.^[4][1]

Word family

• escocedura
• escozor

Related words

• cocer
• Latin excoquō

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like cocer and mover: escuece, escueza.^[12][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. escocer
3. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 238
4. ^ a b c d e 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. escocer
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. excoquere
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 109
8. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cocer
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 449
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ 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. 771
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 564
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 312
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 416
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. 731
16. ^ 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. descocer
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escocer