glotón

Forms

glotón (feminine glotona, masculine plural glotones, feminine plural glotonas)^[1] Old Spanish texts also have grotones and golotrones.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gluttō, gluttōnis (“glutton”).^[3][4][1][5]

The same Latin word is Italian ghiottone, French glouton and Catalan glotó.^[6] The REW takes Portuguese glutão from French, while Cunha derives it from Latin and cites Old Portuguese gloto in the 14th century.^[6][7]

Bénaben and the DHLF derive the Latin noun from gluttus (“gullet”), and Wiktionary from gluttiō (“to swallow”).^[5][8][1] De Vaan groups it with gula (“throat”) and ingluviēs (“gullet, crop”), compares Proto-Slavic *glъtъ (“gullet”), and considers the stem onomatopoeic.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word 1251.^[3] DEMel cites glotones from the Libro de Alexandre (before 1230–c. 1250).^[2] In Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284) an emperor is said to have been gloton and given to lust from the start: one who eats to excess.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed the same since Old Spanish: a person who eats too much and greedily.^[10][4] Covarrubias defined it as one who eats much and without order.^[11] He derived it from the Greek word for “tongue”, Ancient Greek γλῶττα (glôtta), because taste lies in the tongue.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades took it instead from Latin glutto.^[12] In Mexico in 1576 a small animal was called glotón or peçotli.^[13] The DLE also uses the noun for an Arctic carnivore the size of a large fox, the wolverine.^[4][1]

Timeline

• before 1230–c. 1250 – DEMel cites glotones from the Libro de Alexandre.^[2]
• 1251 – first record in Corominas.^[3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España has gloton and the feminine glotona.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders it with Latin gluto and vorator.^[14]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[13]
• 1576 – in Mexico the word names a small animal.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the derivatives glotonear and glotonería.^[11]
• 1623 – glotonería in Corominas's dating.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. gluttonous: eating too much and greedily; also used as a noun, a glutton: Mi hermano es tan glotón que se acabó la tarta.^[4][1]

Noun

1. (zoology) The wolverine (Gulo gulo), an Arctic carnivore about the size of a large fox.^[4][15][1]

Word family

• glotonería
• glotonear

Related words

• gula
• Latin gluttō

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. glotón
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. glotón
4. ^ a b c d e 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. glotón
5. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. glotón
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. glutto
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1694
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 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. glotón
11. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 916
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4
13. ^ a b c 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. glotón
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 357
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. glotón