hijuelo

Forms

hijuelo m (plural hijuelos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote fijuelo, as in Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fijuelo, inherited from Latin fīliolus (“little son”).^[3][1][2] The Academy treats it as the diminutive of hijo, and Corominas lists it among the derivatives of that word.^[3][4] The noun is formed from Latin fīlius + -olus, “son” with a diminutive suffix.^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Catalan fillol (“little son; godson”), Italian figliuolo, Old Occitan filhol and French filleul.^[6][7] In Late Latin it took the sense “godchild”, which French kept.^[8] The feminine Aragonese filiola is used for a secondary irrigation channel.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records are from the 13th century, in the sense “little son”, often of Christ: Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (1228–1246, known from an early 14th-century copy) tells of a father who took su fijuelo a una grant montaña to sacrifice him.^[2] The Libre dels tres reys d'Orient (c. 1230–1260, the first record in a manuscript of its own time) speaks of un fijuelo que hauja que parj el otro dia, “a little son she had borne the other day”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the word was used for the young of animals as well: the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250) tells of a snake fighting two birds that had eight fijuelos.^[2] The Autoridades of 1734 still defined it only as the diminutive of hijo, with the proverb a ti te lo digo, hijuela, entiéndelo tú, mi nuera, said when one person is rebuked so that another may take the hint.^[9]

The botanical sense came into the Academy's dictionary in 1843, as a synonym of chupón, a sucker on a tree, and in 1884 it was defined as a shoot.^[10][11] Today the Academy gives only this sense, while Wiktionary also keeps the diminutive “little son”.^[3][1] In the Canaries, Cuba and Seville growers of tobacco call the buds in the leaf axils hijuelos or hijos, and in Honduras the word names the two small rollers beside the large one in a sugar-cane mill.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1228–1246 – Berceo writes fijuelo for a son taken up a mountain to be sacrificed (in an early 14th-century copy).^[2]
• c. 1230–1260 – the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient has un fijuelo, the first record in a contemporary manuscript.^[2]
• 1572 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru: alimentando sus hijuelos.^[14]
• 1734 – the Autoridades defines it as the diminutive of hijo.^[9]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the sense of a sucker on a tree.^[10]
• 1851 – a Canarian ordinance on tobacco growing orders the hijuelos of the plants to be removed.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy defines the botanical sense as a shoot.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A shoot or sucker that grows from a plant, especially from its root: Planté los hijuelos del aloe en macetas.^{[3][15][16][1]}
2. A little son; the diminutive of hijo.^[1][9]
3. (Canary Islands, Cuba) Each of the axillary buds of the tobacco plant (tabaco).^[12]
4. (Honduras) In a sugar-cane mill, each of the two small rollers that flank the large one.^[13]

Related words

• hijo
• hijuela
• Latin fīliolus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hijuelo
3. ^ a b c d 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. hijuelo
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 359
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2787
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 157
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 388
11. ^ 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. 567
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. hijuelo
13. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. hijuelo
14. ^ 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. hijuelo
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hijuelo
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. hijuelo