hez

Forms

hez f (plural heces)^[1] Old Spanish wrote fez, plural fezes or feses;^[2][3] Old Aragonese had fiez.^[4][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fez, inherited from Latin fēx (“dregs”), a variant of faex (“lees, dregs”).^[4][5][6] The spelling with ⟨ae⟩ is the usual one in Latin, but the one with ⟨e⟩, which Spanish requires, occurs in manuscripts of Columella and other texts.^[4] The initial ⟨f⟩ of Berceo and Juan Ruiz had become ⟨h⟩ by Nebrija's time.^[4] García de Diego notes that the form Aragonese fiez, with a diphthong, is the regular outcome beside the Castilian form without one.^[3]

Corominas finds the word kept only in Spanish, Portuguese fez, Bearnese, Sardinian and some Italian dialects, and Old Catalan feu was used by Eiximenis.^[4][7] The usual word in Italy is Italian feccia, from an adjective *faecea.^[4]

The Latin word has no known etymology; it may be a loan from a substrate language.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (1220–1250): la fez del su mal vino “the dregs of his bad wine”.^[4][5][9]

Semantic evolution

In 13th-century prose fezes were the dregs of oil and wine: the Moamín of 1250 soaks pork in las fezes del azeyt, and Alfonso X's Lapidario has a stone that makes the dregs sink to the bottom of oil.^[10] The Moamín also uses the singular fez for a bird's droppings.^[11] Juan Ruiz has the drinkers dizen mal de las fezes “speak ill of the dregs” once they have drunk the wine.^[10]

The figurative sense “the vilest part of anything” is recorded by Covarrubias in 1611 in la hez del pueblo “the dregs of the people”.^[12][13] The Academy's dictionary added the plural sense “excrement” in 1843; it is now the usual sense of heces.^[14][6] Learned words of the Latin family came later: feculento (1709), fecal (1732) and fécula (1817).^[5]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos has la fez del su mal vino.^[5][4]
• 1250 – the Moamín speaks of the dregs of oil.^[10]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor uses fezes of wine.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the modern form hez for the lees of wine.^[4][15]
• 1552 – first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records la hez del pueblo.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “excrement”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin faex.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually in the plural) dregs, lees: the sediment that settles at the bottom of a vessel of wine or another liquid: Tiró las heces que quedaban en la tinaja.^[6][18][1]
2. (figurative, derogatory) The vilest and most despicable part of anything; scum.^[6][1]
3. (in the plural) excrement, faeces.^[6][18][1]

Related words

• defecar
• Latin faex
• Portuguese fezes

Usage notes

In the sense “excrement” the word is used in the plural, heces.^[6][1] La hez de la sociedad and la hez del pueblo are the usual figurative phrases.^[12][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. hez
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2641
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 351
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hez
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. hez
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1552
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 252
10. ^ 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. hez
11. ^ 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. hez
12. ^ 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. 974
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 149
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 386
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 362
16. ^ 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. hez
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 563
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hez