higo

Forms

higo m (plural higos)^[1] Old Spanish figo, from the Cid on.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish figo, inherited from Latin fīcus (“fig; fig tree”).^[2][4][5][1] The same word is Portuguese figo, Galician figo, Asturian figu, Aragonese figo, Italian fico, Sardinian figu and Old French fi.^[2][6][7]

In Late Latin a plural Vulgar Latin *fica (“figs”) came into use, and in several languages it became a singular: Dalmatian faika, fica in southern Italy, German Feige, fie, Occitan figa and Catalan figa.^[2][6] French figue was taken from the Occitan word.^[6] Castilian has only traces of it in old eastern texts, such as Old Spanish figa in Berceo.^[2] Corominas rejects A. Alonso's view that breva, from Latin bifera, proves that this plural existed in Castilian and Portuguese.^[2] As a name for the female genitals the same form spread through most of Romance.^[2] It gave higa, the gesture of scorn made with the fist.^[2][4]

The Latin word is a loanword from another Mediterranean language, like Ancient Greek σῦκον (sûkon) and Old Armenian թուզ (tʻuz); de Vaan suggests it may have entered pre-Latin from a Mediterranean source.^[8][9] Wiktionary mentions a possible Semitic source, comparing Biblical Hebrew פַּג (paḡ, “unripe fig”).^[1] hígado “liver” and sicofanta belong to the same family.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already uses it for something worthless: cuanto dexo no lo precio un figo “all I leave behind I don't value at a fig”.^[3][2] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has the same comparison, todo esto non uale uno figo.^[3] The fruit itself appears in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200), where Isaiah orders a lump of figs to be pressed on a sore.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The phrase of the Cid stayed common in Old Spanish, in the Libro de Apolonio and the Libro de Alexandre.^[3][2] By comparison higo also named a tumour, especially a haemorrhoid;^[2][4][11] Nebrija distinguished the fig of the fruit tree, the anal swelling and a sore of the head.^[2][4][11] Alfonso X's General Estoria explains Latin carica as figo passado, a dried fig.^[12] Covarrubias noted in 1611 that Latin ficus meant the fruit, the tree and the disease, quoting Martial.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) recorded no se me da un higo, pan de higos and the proverb en tiempo de higos no hay amigos.^[14] The Academy added higo chumbo, the fruit of the prickly pear, in 1817, and de higos a brevas “once in a blue moon” in 1869.^[15][16] The first record in the Americas is from Puerto Rico in 1513, in lists of casks of figs.^[17] In the Canaries it also names the prickly pear's fruit; in Bolivia and Argentina the plural means the testicles, and in Puerto Rico higo is a ripe coffee bean.^[18][19][20] Colloquially it is also a word for the female genitals.^[21][1] Classical Nahuatl borrowed it as hīcox.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – no lo precio un figo in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[3][2]
• c. 1180 – non uale uno figo in the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[3]
• c. 1200 – the fruit in La fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[3]
• 1251 – a privilege of Alfonso X to Seville taxes figos.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the fruit and the swellings called higo.^[11]
• 1513 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias on the fruit, the tree and the disease.^[13]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records en tiempo de higos no hay amigos.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds higo chumbo.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy adds de higos a brevas.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fig: the second, later fruit of the fig tree (higuera), soft and sweet, full of tiny seeds: Por la tarde comimos higos recién cogidos.^[5][1]
2. A swelling round the anus, shaped like a fig.^[5][22]
3. Something worthless, as in no valer un higo and no dársele a alguien un higo.^[5][22]
4. (colloquial) The female genitals.^[21][1]
5. (colloquial) Something crumpled or wrinkled, as in estar hecho un higo.^[21][22]
6. (Canary Islands) The fruit of the prickly pear.^[18]
7. (Bolivia, Argentina, in the plural) The testicles.^[19]
8. (Puerto Rico) A ripe coffee bean.^[20]

Word family

• higa
• higuera
• higueral

Related words

• hígado
• sicofanta
• Latin fīcus
• Portuguese figo

Usage notes

Higo chumbo, higo de pala or higo de tuna is the fruit of the prickly pear.^[5] Corriente suggests that the Andalusian higo “what is needed for a purpose” and the children's cry ¡higos! in hide-and-seek have nothing to do with the fruit, but with the game al higuí, perhaps from an Arabic imperative “catch it!”.^[23][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 358
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. higo
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. higo
5. ^ 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. higo
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3281
7. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
11. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 362
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)
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 978
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 154
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
17. ^ 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
18. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. higo
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
20. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. higo
21. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
23. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos
24. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter