escotar

escotar¹ cut to shape, cut a neckline

Pronunciation

• /eskoˈtaɾ/, [es.koˈt̪aɾ]^[1]

Forms

escotar (first-person singular present escoto, first-person singular preterite escoté, past participle escotado)^[1]

Etymology

The word for cutting a garment to shape is probably formed from Spanish es- + cota + -ar, from that noun in its old sense “doublet; coat of arms”.^[2][3][4] Corominas explains it by the opening cut under the arms of a coat of mail, which let the wearer move them, so that to make such a cut was at first to cut the coat.^[2][5] The DLE gives the same source with a “perhaps”.^[4] The noun comes from Old French cote, from Frankish *kotta (“coarse woollen cloth”).^[6][7]

The verb has the same uncertain origin as Portuguese decotar and Catalan escotar, and Occitan escotar has it too.^[2][3] Corominas thinks the Portuguese form may have come ready-made from France, where Godefroy found escoté for a way of cutting cloth in a text of 1471.^[2] He rejects the older derivation from a Gothic word for “corner of a cloth; lap”, proposed by Diez and still accepted with reservations by Meyer-Lübke and Gamillscheg, because that sense could hardly give the rounded cut of a neckline.^[2] The Academy dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived the verb from the prefix and cuota, mixing it with the verb for paying one's share.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ordinance of Jerez of 1268 forbids Jews to wear çapatos escotados “cut-out shoes”, among other luxuries.^[10] Corominas dates the verb from Oudin's dictionary of 1607, with escotar un jubón “to cut the collar off a doublet”, and found the derivative escotadura already about 1400 in the Cancionero de Baena, for the opening under the arm of a coat of armour.^[2] The BDELC gives 1604 for the verb.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From cutting the opening of a coat of armour the verb passed to cutting a garment at the neck and shoulders to fit the body.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 calls a collarless doublet or jerkin escotado, and Autoridades defines the verb as cutting something down so that it reaches the required size, as with a dress or jerkin.^[11][12] From the 17th century the verb and its noun escote, the low neckline, became common.^[2]

The Academy dictionaries from 1817 on add a sense “to draw water from a river or lagoon by bleeding it with channels”, which the DLE keeps.^[13][4] An older nautical sense, “to bail water out of a ship”, occurs about 1406 in Ruy González de Clavijo and is quoted by Autoridades from Guevara; the Academy marked it as obsolete from 1817.^[10][12][13] Moliner treats the neckline sense, with a reflexive “to open at the neck”, as the main one.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – the Portuguese poet Martín Soárez has escotaron for cutting a garment, the oldest record Corominas found.^[2]
• 1268 – çapatos escotados “cut-out shoes” in an ordinance of Jerez.^[10]
• c. 1400 – the derivative escotadura in the Cancionero de Baena.^[2][3]
• c. 1406 – Ruy González de Clavijo uses escotar for bailing water out of a galley.^[10]
• 1604 – the first date the BDELC gives for the verb.^[3]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary has escotar un jubón.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls a collarless doublet escotado.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense of drawing off water from a river.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cut something down so that it fits the required size or shape, especially to cut a neckline (escote) in a garment: La costurera escotó la blusa por detrás.^[4][14][1]
2. (transitive) To draw water from a river, stream or lagoon by bleeding (sangrar) it or digging channels (acequias).^[4][14]
3. (reflexive) Of a garment, to open at the neck.^[14]

Word family

• escotado
• escotadura
• escote

escotar² pay one's share

Pronunciation

• /eskoˈtaɾ/, [es.koˈt̪aɾ]^[1]

Forms

escotar (first-person singular present escoto, first-person singular preterite escoté, past participle escotado)^[1]

Etymology

The word for paying one's share is formed from Spanish escote (“share of a common expense”).^{[4][15][16][17]} escote comes from Old French escot (modern écot), from Frankish *skot (“contribution in money”).^[15][16][18] Corominas compares Dutch schot, Old English scot and German Schoss, derived from the verbs for “to shoot”, which in German also served for contributing money.^[15] From French came also Portuguese escote and Italian scotto, and perhaps Catalan escot and the Occitan word.^[15][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vidal Mayor, of about 1250, speaks of walls and other works for which the infanzones must escotar, pay their share.^[10][19] Corominas's first record is Juan Ruiz, about 1335, who has the verb twice in the Libro de buen amor.^[15][16][20]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the verb meant to pay, and early it was used for paying for a wrong: in Juan Ruiz the proud man escota his love for the lady, and the Corbacho of 1438 warns ¡come byen fijo, que tú escotarás! “eat well, son, for you will pay”.^[10][20] Nebrija gives it as “to pay one's share at a meal”, and Autoridades says it is used especially when the cost of a feast or banquet is shared among all; it records the proverb Gran placer, no escotar y comer “a great pleasure, to eat and not pay”.^[21][12] In the cant of thieves it meant to pay for what one eats or is given.^[22] Today it is a transitive or absolute verb for a share of a common expense, beside the phrase a escote.^[4][14]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – escotar “to pay one's share” in the Vidal Mayor.^[10]
• c. 1335 – Juan Ruiz uses the verb in the Libro de buen amor, Corominas's first record.^[15][16]
• 1438 – the Corbacho has tú escotarás “you will pay”.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: escotar en el comer, Latin symbolum do.^[23]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to pay the shot”.^[24]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records it in the cant of thieves.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives “to pay one's part” as its first sense.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive or intransitive) To pay one's share of an expense made in common by several people: Para el regalo de la profesora escotamos todos.^[4][14][1]