estío

Forms

estío m (plural estíos)^[1] Old Spanish texts have estiu, estiuo, estiuio and estio; one manuscript of Juan Ruiz writes estivo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish estivo, inherited from Latin aestīvum (“summer (season)”), short for a phrase with tempus (“time, season”), the neuter of aestīvus (“of summer”) used as a noun.^[3][4][5][1] Corominas notes that the Latin adjectives for summer, winter and spring became nouns at the same time, and that the noun is already used by Saint Eugenius, archbishop of Toledo.^[3][6] Old Spanish of the 13th century also had a couple of examples of estad, from Latin aestās (“summer”).^[3]

The same word is Portuguese estio, Galician estio, Catalan estiu, Occitan estiu and Sardinian istiu.^[7][8][1] The learned estival (1490) comes from the same Latin family.^[4]

The Latin adjective adds -īvus to the stem of the noun for summer.^[1] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *aissāt-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eidh-teh₂t- (“burning, heat”), from the root of Ancient Greek αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250) has the form estiu: merchants come to a great fair al entrant del estiu, “at the beginning of summer”.^[10][2] The Poridat de las poridades (c. 1250) describes estio as the hot, dry season that follows verano.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Spanish verano meant spring, and estío was the only common name for the hot season; the Libro de Alexandre lists the four seasons as Ivierno, Verano, Estío and Autunpno.^[3][10] When primavera came in for the spring, verano moved into the hot season and estío became its synonym; some authors kept a distinction, and Cervantes even counted five seasons, with verano before estío.^[3] Covarrubias treated the two words as equivalent, and long before the 19th century estío had been left to poetry.^[3]

The Academy's dictionary of 1869 still noted an old sense “spring”, and its 1899 edition defined the season astronomically, from 22 June to 21 September.^[11][12] Today the DLE defines it simply as verano, and Moliner marks it as literary.^[5][13] Valle-Inclán's Sonata de estío is an example of the literary use.^[14]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – the form estiu in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[10][2]
• c. 1250 – the Poridat de las poridades writes estio.^[10]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas speaks of the heat of estio.^[10][15]
• 1335 – Juan Ruiz, the date of the BDELC.^[4][3]
• 1490 – first record of the learned estival.^[4]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City, as the gloss of Nahuatl tonalco.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy defines the season by the solstice and the equinox.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) summer, the season between spring and autumn: Los arroyos se secan en pleno estío.^[5][1][13]

Word family

• estivada

Related words

• verano
• estival
• estero
• Latin aestās
• Catalan estiu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. estío
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, 790
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estío
5. ^ 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. estío
6. ^ Cabrera, Ramón (1837), Diccionario de etimologías de la lengua castellana, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta de Marcos Bueno, p. s.v. estío
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 248
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 237
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 c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estío
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 340
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 434
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estío
14. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. estío
15. ^ 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. estío
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. estío