fuerte

Forms

fuerte m or f (masculine and feminine plural fuertes, superlative fortísimo or fuertísimo)^[1] Old Spanish often shortened the word to fuert, especially before a noun or as an adverb.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fortis (“strong, robust”), through Old Spanish fuerte.^[2][4][5][1] The stressed short /o/ of Latin became the diphthong /we/, written ⟨ue⟩.^[6][2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese forte, Galician forte, Catalan fort, Occitan fort, French fort, Italian forte and Romanian foarte, which means “very”.^[7][6]

Old Latin had forctis beside the classical form.^[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *forkti- and considers two Indo-European sources, both uncertain: *bʰerǵʰ- (“high, to rise”), with Sanskrit and Avestan words for “high” and “great”, and *dʰerǵʰ- (“to make firm”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is a charter of 932 from Oelschläger's list.^[2][4] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) describes a hill where the Cid camps as „fuerte e grand”, strong and large.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Besides the basic sense, medieval texts often used fuerte for “hard, harsh, grievous”, as in the Libro de Apolonio, where the ships set out „en fuert punto” “at an evil hour”.^[2] The word was also an adverb meaning “very, greatly”, as in French; after the 13th century this use declined, and fuerte “strongly” became rare in literary Spanish of the Golden Age and today, though it lives on in the popular speech of the Americas.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario already has the senses “strong, powerful”, “hard to work” (of a material), “rough” (of land) and “terrible, grievous”.^[11]

The noun fuerte “fort” is recorded from 1595, and as a term of fortification it may have been modelled on French fort.^[2][4] Covarrubias in 1611 spoke of the strong man who keeps God's law, and of the strong woman of the Proverbs.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the fort and the senses “resistant” and “robust, of great strength”.^[13] Alemany in 1917 recorded the noun for the thing a person is best at.^[14]

In the Canary Islands fuerte before a noun is an exclamatory intensifier, recorded from 1733 (¡Fuerte cosa es…!).^[15][1] DAMER lists “very attractive” (Peru, Argentina), “difficult, complicated” (Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic) and “foul-smelling” (Chile); in Ecuador fuerte is a strong cane spirit.^[16]

Timeline

• 932 – first record, in a charter.^[2][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid calls a hill „fuerte e grand”.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of hard materials, rough land and grievous illness.^[11]
• 1520 – first record in the Americas, in Cuba.^[17]
• 1595 – first record of the noun fuerte “fort”.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records fuerte as “fortress” and the phrase fuerte encuentro.^[12]
• 1733 – first Canarian record of the exclamatory ¡fuerte…!.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. strong, sturdy: very resistant: una cuerda fuerte.^[5][1]
2. Having strength or force; robust, well built.^[5]
3. Of firm and spirited character.^[5]
4. In good health.^[5]
5. Hard, not easily worked, as diamond or steel.^[5]
6. Of land: rough, rugged.^[5][11]
7. Of a place: fortified against attack.^[5]
8. Of a sensation: intense; of a sound, loud: un olor muy fuerte.^[5][1]
9. Powerful: una economía fuerte.^[5]
10. Of a currency: inspiring confidence internationally.^[5]
11. Terrible, grave, excessive.^[5][11]
12. (euphemistic) Of a person: stout, fat.^[5]

Noun

1. A fort, a fortified place.^[1][13]
2. A person's strong point: La cocina no es su fuerte.^[1][14]
3. (Ecuador) A strong spirit distilled from sugar cane.^[16][1]

Adverb

1. Hard, with force; loudly: Llovía fuerte.^[1][2]

Word family

• fortachón
• fortín
• contrafuerte
• fuertemente

Related words

• fortaleza
• fortificar
• fuerza
• forzar
• esforzar
• confortar
• Latin fortis
• Portuguese forte

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 g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 972
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. fuerte
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fuerte
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. fuerte
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2890
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3457
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. fortis
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. fortis
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. fuerte
11. ^ a b c d 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. fuerte
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 872
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 807
14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 803
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. fuerte
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. fuerte
17. ^ 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. fuerte