frío

Forms

frío (feminine fría, masculine plural fríos, feminine plural frías, diminutive friito or friecito)^[1] Old Spanish also had frido, in Berceo, the Libro de Apolonio, Juan Ruiz, the Cancionero de Baena and the Aragonese fueros, and fredo, still used in Ribagorza.^[2][3] Asturian has fríu;^[4][1] Judeo-Spanish has frio and friyo.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish frio, inherited from Latin frīgidus (“cold”).^[2][5][6][1] Old Spanish also had frido, the form of a Cardeña charter of 931 and of Berceo's rhymes, which survives in the ballad of Fontefrida.^[2] Corominas derives the two forms from different Vulgar Latin bases: the modern form regularly from the classical adjective, like all adjectives in -idus, and the old one from the syncopated Vulgar Latin frigdus of the Appendix Probi or fridus of the Pompeian inscriptions, since Castilian usually kept a /d/ between vowels after the stress.^[2][1] The REW doubts that the modern form continues the classical adjective, because Old Spanish also had fredo: after Menéndez Pidal it allows that it may come from *freo and that the form with /d/ may be a literary blend.^[7]

Most of the other Romance languages go back to the syncopated form: Catalan fred, Aragonese fredo, French froid and Italian freddo.^[2][8][1] Portuguese frio, Galician frío and Asturian fríu agree with Spanish.^[9][4][1] The learned doublet is frígido, first recorded about 1440.^[5]

The Latin adjective is formed from frīgeō (“to be cold”) or from frīgus (“cold, frost”) with that suffix.^[1][10] De Vaan reconstructs the noun as Proto-Italic *srīgos, from Proto-Indo-European *sriHǵ-o/es- (“frost, bitter cold”), and compares Ancient Greek ῥῖγος (rhîgos, “cold, frost”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Cardeña charter of 931 has frido; the form frío first appears in a document from northern Castile of 1212.^[2][5] DEMel adds frido in a document of 1166 from the Pilar collection, and vega fría “cold meadow” in the Arlanza cartulary of the early 13th century.^[12] In Alfonso X's Lapidario a lake unlike all others dries up en el tiempo frio del yuierno, “in the cold time of winter”, and fills in the great heat.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The prose of Alfonso X already uses the adjective for low temperature, for one of the four qualities of ancient physics, for a woman indifferent to sexual pleasure, and for excuses that are worth nothing (unas razones frias).^[13] The sense “dull, without wit or grace” was very common in the Golden Age;^[2] Corominas finds it rare among the Romance languages, shared only with Portuguese, and suggests the influence of Arabic bárid, “cold” and also “foolish”, although Latin frigidus had a similar sense in Cicero, Quintilian and Gellius.^[2] From it came friolera, first “a remark without wit” (1660) and then “a trifle”.^[5]

Autoridades records the noun for the effect of cold and for the chill before a fever, as in Cervantes's frío de cuartana.^[14] The Academy's 1899 edition lists “impotent”, “indifferent”, “without wit” and “ineffective” as figurative senses.^[15] Alemany (1917) records the plural fríos in the Americas for intermittent fevers that begin with chills.^[16] The DLE now adds the cool colours, from green to violet.^[6]

In Cuba and the Dominican Republic frío names a refrigerator, and in the Dominican Republic, Peru and Bolivia the adjective means “dead”; in the Dominican Republic una fría is a beer.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 931 – frido in a Cardeña charter.^[2][5]
• 1059 – the place name Fonte Freda, with the form from frigdus, in a charter of San Juan de la Peña.^[2]
• 1177 – the plural Frías as a proper name in a document of Oña.^[2]
• 1212 – frío in a document from northern Castile.^[2][5]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for winter cold.^[13]
• 1386 – the noun frialdad.^[5]
• c. 1440 – the learned doublet frígido.^[5]
• 1495 – enfriar, resfriar and friera “chilblain”.^[5]
• 1660 – friolera “a remark without wit”.^[5]
• 1899 – the Academy lists the senses “impotent” and “without wit”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cold: having a lower temperature than usual or suitable: Dejó el té frío sobre la mesa.^[6][1]
2. That gives no warmth: una chaqueta fría.^[6]
3. Of colours: in the range from green through blue to violet; cool.^[6][1]
4. Of a person: indifferent, distant; also calm and calculating: Fue muy frío con sus vecinos.^[6][1][19]
5. Frigid.^[6]
6. Stunned by an unexpected event, as in quedarse frío.^[6]
7. That does not move the feelings: una despedida fría.^[6]
8. (Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia, colloquial) Dead.^[17][18]

Noun

1. cold, low temperature: En enero hizo mucho frío.^[6][1]
2. The sensation of cold, as in tener frío.^[6]
3. (Cuba, Dominican Republic) A refrigerator.^[6][17]
4. (Ecuador, plural) The chills that come before a malarial fever.^[17]
5. (obsolete) A drink cooled with snow or ice.^[6]

Word family

• fríamente
• enfriar
• resfriar
• friolento
• friolero
• friolera
• friera
• fiambre
• escalofrío
• avefría

Related words

• frialdad
• frígido
• frigorífico
• frior
• friura
• refrigerar
• Latin frīgidus
• Portuguese frio
• Catalan fred

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 959
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. frigidus
4. ^ a b c Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. fríu
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. frío
6. ^ 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. frío
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 179
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1613
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. frío
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. frío
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. frío
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 473
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 799
17. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. frío
18. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. frío
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. frío