fumar

Forms

fumar (first-person singular present fumo, first-person singular preterite fumé, past participle fumado)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas takes it as probably borrowed from French fumer (“to smoke”), which had the sense of smoking tobacco from 1664.^[2] Wiktionary follows him.^[1] The French verb is from Latin fūmāre (“to give off smoke”), and the DLE derives the Spanish word directly from the Latin.^[3][4] The first record is in the Diccionario de Autoridades (1732), which says it is mostly used of smoking leaf tobacco.^[5][6] Covarrubias, Oudin and Franciosini lack it.^[2]

The Latin verb gave inherited Spanish humar “to give off smoke”, and Catalan fumar, Portuguese fumar, Galician fumar, Occitan fumar, Italian fumare and Romanian fuma continue it.^[7][8][1] It is formed on fūmus (“smoke”), the source of humo.^[2][1] De Vaan derives the noun from *fūmo- and *dʰuh₂mó- (“smoke”), with cognates such as dūmai (“smoke”).^[9][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) defines fumar as “to throw out or give off smoke”, and adds that it is used chiefly for taking leaf tobacco.^[6] The participle fumante “smoking” is older, from 1628.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Terreros gave only the tobacco sense, with the French equivalent fumer.^[10] The Academy in 1884 split the old sense, “to give off smoke”, from smoking tobacco, opium or anise, and used it also as a transitive verb.^[11] The Léxico hispanoamericano has fumar un cigarro in Cuba in 1839, and later records from Bogotá, Uruguay and Buenos Aires.^[12] Colloquial pronominal uses are recent: fumarse la paga “to squander one's pay” and fumarse la clase “to skip class”.^[3][13] In Bolivia and Argentina it can mean “to deceive, make fun of”, and in Mexico and the Dominican Republic “to put up with” someone.^[14][3]

Timeline

• 1628 – fumante “smoking”, in Gallegos.^[2]
• 1664 – French fumer is used for smoking tobacco.^[2][4]
• 1732 – first record, in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[5][6]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros gives it as “to take leaf tobacco”.^[10]
• 1839 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds opium and other substances, and the transitive use.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give off smoke (humo).^[3][1]
2. To smoke tobacco or another substance; also transitive: Fuma una pipa después de comer.^[3][1]
3. (Bolivia) To tease, to pull someone's leg (tomar el pelo).^[3][14]
4. (pronominal, colloquial) To squander or spend something improperly.^[3][13]
5. (pronominal, colloquial) To skip an obligation such as a class or work.^[3][1]

Word family

• fumable
• fumador
• fumadero
• fumada
• infumable
• fumarada

Related words

• ahumar
• humar
• humear
• humo
• fumigar
• French fumer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 427
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. fumar
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fumer
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. humo
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 811
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fumare
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fumare
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 194
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 514
12. ^ 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. fumar
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fumar
14. ^ 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. fumar