gozo

Forms

gozo m (plural gozos)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote goço and goso.^[2][3] Old Aragonese had goyo, still used in Upper Aragon.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish gozo, inherited from Latin gaudium (“joy, delight”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is formed from gaudeō (“to rejoice”).^[4][7] Corominas explains the /dz/ of the Old Spanish word (a voiced ⟨z⟩, as in Nebrija) as the regular outcome of the group -di- after the diphthong au, which acted like a consonant, as in almuerzo.^[4][5] He rejects the older proposals of a source in Latin gustus (“taste”) or negōtium (“business”).^[4]

The same Latin word is Aragonese goyo, Catalan goig, Old Galician-Portuguese goivo, Old Occitan gaug and Old French joie.^[8][9][4] Portuguese gozo is not recorded before 1572 and, like the verb gozar, is a borrowing from Castilian; the native forms were the old noun named above and the verb gouvir.^[4][10]

The Latin verb goes back to *gāweþ-ē-, from *ǵeh₂u-edʰ- (“to rejoice”), and is related to γηθέω (gēthéō, “to rejoice”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already uses the word for joy: when the chests are loaded veriedes gozo tanto “you would have seen such joy”.^[12][5] Menéndez Pidal records it many times in the poem, often in the plural grandes son los gozos “great is the joy”, and also for an outward show of joy.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Corominas calls it a popular word, frequent in every period.^[4] In Alfonso X's astrology it also names the house in which a planet rejoices.^[14] Nebrija distinguishes an honest gozo (Latin gaudium) from joy in general, and Covarrubias repeats the Stoic distinction between inner gaudium and outward laetitia.^[15][16]

The proverb nuestro gozo en el pozo “our joy down the well”, said when a hope comes to nothing, is in Covarrubias and in Autoridades.^[16][17] The Academy added in 1817 the senses “flare of burning brushwood” and, in the plural, a poem in praise of the Virgin or a saint with a refrain after each stanza.^[18] The Judeo-Spanish of Salonica keeps the word for happiness in enjoyment.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid records gozo “joy”.^[12][5]
• c. 1230–1260 – the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient gives the first record in a manuscript of the period.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives gaudium as its Latin equivalent.^[15]
• 1548 – the first records from the Americas, in Mexico City and Santo Domingo.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb nuestro gozo en el poço.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades has el gozo en el pozo.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the senses “flare of brushwood” and gozos “hymn”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. joy, delight: the feeling of pleasure in having, remembering or hoping for something good: Sintió un gozo enorme al ver a su hija.^[6][1]
2. Gladness, cheerfulness.^[6][1]
3. The flare given off by small dry firewood as it burns.^[6][21]
4. (in the plural) A hymn in praise of the Virgin or a saint, in stanzas each followed by the same refrain.^[6][22]

Word family

• gozar
• gozoso
• regocijar
• regocijo
• goce

Related words

• joya
• Latin gaudium
• Catalan goig

Usage notes

Mi (tu, su…) gozo en un pozo is said when something one counted on comes to nothing, and no caber en sí de gozo means to be overjoyed.^[6][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. gozo
3. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 239
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 185
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gozo
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. gozo
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gaudium
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. gaudium
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1696
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. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. gozo
13. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 301
14. ^ 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. gozo
15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 357
16. ^ 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. 927
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 66
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 447
19. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. gozo
20. ^ 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. gozo
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gozo
22. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. gozo