estrecho

Forms

estrecho (feminine estrecha, masculine plural estrechos, feminine plural estrechas)^[1] Old Spanish also had estreito and estreyto, the form that Aragonese, Galician and Portuguese keep.^[2][3] Salamanca has entrechar for estrechar, with a change of prefix.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin strictus (“drawn tight, close”), through Old Spanish estrecho, properly the past participle of stringō (“to draw tight, bind”).^[4][5][6][1] Beside it Spanish took the learned doublet estricto from the same Latin word in 1692.^[4][7][1] The noun “strait” is the adjective used alone, after the ellipsis of a noun such as paso “passage”.^[8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese estreito, Galician estreito, Catalan estret, Asturian estrechu, French étroit and Italian stretto.^{[2][9][10][1]} García de Diego records the older form estreito in the Glosas Silenses and in Old Aragonese.^[2]

Wiktionary explains the Latin verb as a merger of two older verbs, one meaning “to strip off”, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg-, and one meaning “to twist, tie”, from *strengʰ-.^[1] De Vaan likewise reconstructs two Proto-Italic stems, Proto-Italic *string- (“to strip off”) and *strenge- (“to tie”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the adjective to the 10th century, and García de Diego finds the form estreito in the Glosas Silenses.^[4][2] The Fazienda de Ultramar (1200–1250) has both estrecho and estreyto.^[3][12] In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) the word means “narrow”: unlike other animals, man has narrow passages, „a las estrechas”, through which the humours flow.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Already in Alfonso X's prose the word also means “tight” (of a tunic), “strict, austere” (a stricter monastic rule) and “mean, poor”.^[13] The noun named any narrow passage between two high things, such as walls or mountains, and figuratively a tight spot, danger or need: the Crónica de San Fernando says Córdoba was „en grande estrecho” for lack of food.^[14] In the Americas the noun “hardship” appears in 1515 (estrecho de hambre “straits of hunger”), and the Strait of Magellan as el Estrecho in a text from Chile of 1550.^[15]

The Diccionario de Autoridades put the geographical sense first, with the straits of Gibraltar and Magellan as examples.^[14] From 1843 the Academy also recorded a Twelfth Night game, los estrechos, in which ladies and gentlemen were paired by lot.^[16][5] The modern dictionaries add the sense “prudish about sex”, used of a person, also as a noun.^[5][17]

Timeline

• 900s – the earliest record, in the form estreito in the Glosas Silenses.^[4][2]
• 1200–1250 – the Fazienda de Ultramar has estrecho and estreyto.^[3]
• c. 1250 – the derivative estrechura is first recorded.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the adjective for narrow passages of the body.^[13]
• 1475 – the verb estrechar is first recorded.^[4]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[15]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it with English straight.^[18]
• 1692 – the learned doublet estricto is first recorded.^[4]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the noun “strait”.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology, “Del lat. strictus, apretado”.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. narrow: having little width: un pasillo estrecho.^[5][1]
2. tight, close-fitting: unos zapatos estrechos.^[5][1]
3. Of kinship, close; of a friendship or relationship, intimate.^[5][1]
4. rigid, austere, strict.^[5]
5. Mean, stingy, miserly.^[5]
6. (of a person) prudish, with restrictive ideas about sex; also used as a noun.^[5][17][1]

Noun

1. (geography) A strait: a narrow passage of sea between two lands, joining two seas: el estrecho de Bering.^[5][1]
2. A tight spot, hardship; the same as estrechez.^[5]
3. (anatomy) Each of the narrow openings that bound the pelvis above and below.^[20]
4. (historical, in the plural) A game played on the eve of Epiphany, in which each gentleman was paired by lot with a lady he had to serve for the year; also the partner so drawn.^[5]

Word family

• estrechamente
• estrechar
• estrechez
• estrechura
• estrecho de miras

Related words

• estricto
• estreñir
• Latin strictus
• Portuguese estreito

Usage notes

The adverbial phrase al estrecho means “by force”, and the obsolete a la estrecha meant “closely”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6367
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. estrecho
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estreñir
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. estrecho
6. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. estrecho
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 735
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. estrecho
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. estret
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. étroit
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. estrecho
13. ^ 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. estrecho
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 647
15. ^ 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, p. s.v. estrecho
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 327
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estrecho
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. s.v. estrecho
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 436
20. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. estrecho