gritar

Forms

gritar (first-person singular present grito, first-person singular preterite grité, past participle gritado)^[1] Old Castilian and Old Aragonese also had cridar.^[2]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *crītāre (“to cry out”), which is probably a contraction of Latin quirītō (“to cry out for help, raise a public outcry”).^[3][1][4][5] The word is common to the western Romance languages: Portuguese gritar, Galician gritar, Asturian gritar, Catalan cridar, Occitan cridar, French crier and Italian gridare.^[3][6][1] Spanish and Portuguese keep the /t/ between vowels instead of voicing it.^[3] Corominas suggests that the expressive nature of the word explains it, and Bénaben notes that the regular outcome would have had /d/.^[3][7]

The Romans themselves explained the Latin verb as “to call on the protection of the Quirites”, the Roman citizens, and the OLD derives it from Quirītēs.^[8][9] Wiktionary also mentions a link with queror (“to complain”) and with quirrītō (“to squeal like a boar”), an imitative word.^[1][8] The REW mentions as an alternative a Germanic source like Proto-West Germanic *krītan (“to cry out”).^[6] Corominas and Wartburg reject this because the Germanic forms are late and limited, and consider both word families imitative.^[6][1] In his Catalan dictionary Coromines also sees the two Latin forms as imitative variants.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest reliable record in the CDH is Abraham of Toledo's Moamín, a book on the animals that hunt (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century): the start of a season se entiende en que gritan más que suelen “is known by their crying more than usual”.^[11][12] The BDELC dates the verb only from 1335, but the noun grito from 1220–1250.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1275) a mother gritaua … por la finiestra “cried out at the window”, and hawks are said to be gritando in Elena y María (c. 1280).^[11] Nebrija glossed it with Latin quiritor and vociferor.^[13] Autoridades defined it as raising the voice more than usual, in complaint, threat or warning, and reported Covarrubias's view that it came from Italian gridare.^[14] The Academy's 1899 edition added the transitive use of an audience showing its disapproval noisily, and the DLE now also has the colloquial sense of scolding or ordering someone with shouts.^[15][4]

The first record from the Americas is from Mexico City in 1571.^[16] In the Dominican Republic gritar also means to mourn aloud for a dead person, and of a garment, to suit someone badly.^[17][18] In Aragon it means to reprimand, and in Judeo-Spanish it has the senses “to shout” and “to scold”.^[19][20]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the noun grito is recorded.^[3]
• 1250 – the Moamín uses gritan of hunting birds.^[11][21]
• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria has gritaua.^[11]
• 1335 – the BDELC's first date.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin quiritor and vociferor.^[13]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades reports Covarrubias's derivation from Italian gridare.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the sense of an audience's disapproval.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To raise one's voice more than usual; to shout; also transitive: Desde la orilla le gritaron que volviera.^[4][1]
2. To give a cry or cries; to scream.^[4][1]
3. Of an audience: to show disapproval noisily; also transitive, to boo a performer or a play.^[4][22]
4. (colloquial) To scold or order someone with shouts.^[4]
5. (Dominican Republic) To mourn the death of someone aloud; of clothes or a hairstyle: to suit someone badly.^[17]

Word family

• grito
• grita
• gritería
• griterío

Related words

• vocear
• chillar
• Latin quirītō
• Catalan cridar
• French crier

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. quiritare
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gritar
4. ^ 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. gritar
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 655
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. quiritare
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. gritar
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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. 2, 1055
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. gritar
12. ^ 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. gritar
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 358
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 81
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 504
16. ^ 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. gritar
17. ^ 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. gritar
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. gritar
19. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 16
20. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. gritar
21. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. gritar
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gritar