escurrir

Forms

escurrir (first-person singular present escurro, first-person singular preterite escurrí, past participle escurrido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote escorrer and escorrir: Berceo has the participle escorrida, and the Libro de los animales que cazan the subjunctive escorran.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish escorrer, inherited from Latin excurrō (“to run out”), formed from ex- (“out”) and currō (“to run”).^[1][4][5][6] Vox calls it a 13th-century borrowing from Latin, while Wiktionary and García de Diego treat it as an inherited word.^[7][1][8]

The same Latin verb is Catalan escórrer, Portuguese escorrer, Galician escorrer, Asturian escorrer and Italian scorrere.^[8][9][1] The Asturian verb also means to chase or scare off, and to slip.^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a copy of the late 13th century) la noche escorrida is “the night having passed”, the Latin sense of running out.^[2][5] In the Libro de los animales que cazan (1250) birds' meat is washed in warm water and then escorran las del agua “let them be drained of the water”, the sense the word has today.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used the verb for escaping or rescuing someone from danger, a sense Autoridades quotes from the Crónica general.^[11] Corominas dates the sense “to let drip” to Pedro de Alcalá in 1505.^[5] The Academy's dictionaries from 1817 kept “to scout out places” as an obsolete sense.^[12][4]

Autoridades gave the senses of draining the last drops from a vessel, dripping and sliding, and quoted Quevedo's escurrir el jarro.^[11] The reflexive “to slip away, escape” was added in 1843.^[13] At sea it once meant to row with long strokes, a sense recorded in Mexico in 1587.^[14][15] Later the reflexive also took the senses of saying more than one meant and of offering more than is due.^[4] The phrase escurrir el bulto means to dodge a task or slip away.^[1][16]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo has la noche escorrida “the night having passed”.^[2][5]
• 1250 – the Libro de los animales que cazan uses it for draining meat.^[3]
• 1505 – Pedro de Alcalá has the sense “to let drip”.^[5]
• 1587 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, for rowing with long strokes.^[14]
• 1604 – first record of escurridizo.^[9]
• 1615 – first record of escurribanda.^[9][5]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines draining, dripping and sliding.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the reflexive “to escape”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin excurrere.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drain the last drops of a liquid left in a container: Escurrió la botella para aprovechar el aceite.^[4][18]
2. To make something soaked give off its liquid; to wring or strain; also reflexive: Escurre la pasta antes de servirla.^[4][1]
3. (obsolete) To go over places to reconnoitre them.^[4]
4. (intransitive) Of a vessel or wet thing: to drip.^[4][18]
5. (intransitive) To slide over a surface; also reflexive.^[4]
6. (reflexive) To slip (resbalar), to fall out of one's hands.^[4][18]
7. (reflexive) To slip away, to run off.^[4][1]
8. (reflexive) To dodge a risk or difficulty.^[4][18]
9. (reflexive) To say more than one should or meant to.^[4]
10. (reflexive, colloquial) To overdo it, giving or offering more than is due.^[4][18]

Word family

• escurreplatos
• escurridizo
• escurridor
• escurriduras
• escurribanda

Related words

• correr
• excursión
• Latin excurrō

Usage notes

A separate obsolete escurrir “to go out with someone to see them off”, still used in Cantabria and Palencia, comes from Vulgar Latin *excorrigere (“to accompany”), from corrigō (“to straighten”).^[4][1] It is the word of the Cantar de mio Cid, where the Cid escurriólos “saw them off” to the edge of the camp.^[2][19] Menéndez Pidal accepted Cornu's etymology, comparing Italian scorgere (“to guide, escort”).^[19][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. escurrir
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. escurrir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. escurrir
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 208
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
8. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2537
9. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 581
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
14. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
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
16. ^ Besses, Luis (c. 1905), Diccionario de argot español o lenguaje jergal gitano, delincuente profesional y popular, Barcelona: Manuel Soler, p. 80
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 454
18. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
19. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière
20. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter