helar

Forms

helar (first-person singular present hielo, first-person singular preterite helé, past participle helado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gelō (“to freeze”).^[2][3][4][1] Old Spanish wrote it elar, as in Berceo, and yelar.^[2][5]^(DEMel|s.v. helar(se)) Covarrubias in 1611 still spelt it ⟨elar⟩, explaining it as almost ⟨ielar⟩ or ⟨gelar⟩.^[6] The stressed forms have the diphthong ⟨ie⟩ (⟨hielo⟩, ⟨hiela⟩), an anomaly the Academy's Diccionario de Autoridades pointed out.^[7]

The verb is Portuguese gear, Galician xear, Asturian xelar, Aragonese chelar, Catalan gelar, Occitan gelar, French geler and Italian gelare.^[5][8] Corominas notes that the Latin verb left descendants in all the western Romance languages, better than the noun gelū (“frost”), which survives as a popular word almost only in Castilian hielo.^[2]

The Latin verb is formed from the noun with a verb suffix;^[9][1] Wiktionary notes it may rather be built on the rare variant gelum.^[9][1] The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”), the root of the English word cold.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), which says that a cold wind fazen las elar todas las cosas, “makes all things freeze”.^[10]^(DEMel|s.v. helar(se)) The noun elada “frost” is somewhat earlier, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy).^[10] Corominas dates the verb 1220–1250.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) a white stone looks like a piece of frozen snow, nieue elada.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 listed vines and crops, rivers, wax and people freezing, and quedarse elado for being struck with fright or amazement.^[6] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) gives the intransitive use first, of the weather being so cold that liquids freeze, then the transitive “to chill”, and the exaggerated esta puerta nos hiela for a cold draught.^[7] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 adds the figurative senses “to leave someone stunned” and “to dishearten”.^[12]

In the Americas the verb is recorded from 1548 in Santo Domingo, of oil that freezes and hardens.^[13] The participle helado has become the name of ice cream, and heladería and heladera (a refrigerator in Argentina and Cuba) were formed from it.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the verb elar in the Semejanza del mundo.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of nieue elada.^[11]
• 1495 – the compound deshelar is first recorded.^[3]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias spells it elar and records quedarse elado.^[6]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the diphthong of hiela.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the figurative senses.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) Of cold: to freeze a liquid, turn it into ice.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To leave someone stunned and astonished: La noticia nos heló la sangre.^[4]
3. (transitive) To dishearten someone.^[4]
4. (intransitive, impersonal) To freeze, of the weather: to be cold enough to form ice: Esta madrugada ha helado en la sierra.^[4][1]
5. (reflexive) To become very cold or stiff with cold; to be freezing.^[4][14]
6. (reflexive) Of something melted: to congeal again for lack of heat.^[4]
7. (reflexive) Of plants and fruit: to be killed or spoilt by frost.^[4][14]

Word family

• helada
• helado
• helador
• heladura
• deshelar

Related words

• congelar
• gelatina
• hielo
• gélido
• jalea
• Latin gelō

Usage notes

Helar is conjugated like acertar, with ie in the stressed forms: hielo, hiela, hiele.^[14][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 353
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hielo
4. ^ 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. helar
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gelare
6. ^ 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. 704
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 136
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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. helar
11. ^ a b 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. helar
12. ^ 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. 558
13. ^ 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. helar
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. helar