hogar

Forms

hogar m (plural hogares)^[1] Old Spanish wrote fogar; the spelling hogar appears in the late 15th century and is Nebrija's.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fogar, inherited from Vulgar Latin focāris, an adjective meaning “of the hearth” that replaced Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”) in Hispania.^[2][6][1][7] The DLE describes the source as Hispanic Medieval Latin, derived from the Latin noun.^[8] The old form with ⟨f-⟩, which Autoridades still mentions as the former spelling, had given way to the spelling with ⟨h-⟩ by Nebrija's time.^[2][9]

The same Latin adjective gave Catalan fogar, Galician fogar and Sardinian fogale.^[10][11] French foyer has another suffix.^[10] Romanian focar (“pyre”) also comes from the adjective.^[10]

In Late and Vulgar Latin the noun took over the sense “fire” from ignis, and so it is the source of fuego.^[12][11][6] The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain: de Vaan rejects a link with fax (“torch”) and finds the proposed Indo-European reconstructions difficult, while Wiktionary mentions a comparison with Old Armenian բոց (bocʻ, “flame”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy), where a crippled woman non podrié del fogar salir fata la puerta “could not get from the hearth to the door”.^[2][3][14] The sense is the place in the house where the fire is lit.^[15]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's astronomical works la figura del fogar is the southern constellation Ara, the Altar.^[15][3] Covarrubias called the word a rustic term and quoted ni tiene casa ni hogar “he has no home” and the proverb mi casa y mi hogar, cien doblas val, which praises one's own house however modest.^[16][9] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the sense “house, home”, and Terreros noted that hogares could count the households of a place.^[9][17]

The Academy gave “house, home” as figurative in 1884, and in 1899 added the hearth of kitchens and furnaces and the sense “bonfire”.^[18][19] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 also has the firebox of a steam engine.^[20] By metonymy the word moved from the hearth to the home and the family that gathered around it.^[21] Today it also names a charitable institution and a social centre for a group of people.^[8] In Cuba hogar de ancianos is an old people's home, and in Colombia hogar is written in official forms for a woman's occupation as a housewife.^[22]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (in a late 13th-century copy) has fogar.^[2][3]
• 1254–1260 – the Judizios de las estrellas has fogar de fuego, the first record without a later copy.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the constellation Ara.^[15]
• 1483 – the first text with the spelling hogar in the HSMS archive.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: hogar, the place of the fire, Latin focus.^[5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb mi casa y mi hogar, cien doblas val.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the sense “house, home”.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the figurative sense “home”.^[18]
• 1917 – Alemany records the firebox of steam engines.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. hearth: the place where the fire is made in kitchens, fireplaces, furnaces and the like.^[8][1]
2. home, house, dwelling: Después del viaje volvieron a su hogar.^[8][1]
3. family, a group of relatives who live together: Es un hogar con cuatro hijos.^[8]
4. A charitable home, an asylum (asilo).^[8][22]
5. A social centre where people who share an activity, situation or origin meet.^[8]
6. (rare) A bonfire (hoguera).^[8]

Word family

• hogareño

Related words

• foco
• fogón
• fuego
• hoguera
• hogaza
• Latin focus
• English foyer

Usage notes

Empleado de hogar is a domestic worker.^[8] Hogar is the warmer word for the place where one lives and the family that lives there, casa the building.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 968
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hogar
4. ^ a b 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. hogar
5. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 363
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fuego
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 299
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. hogar
9. ^ 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, 164
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. hogar
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. feu
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 254
15. ^ a b c 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. hogar
16. ^ 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. 985
17. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 299
18. ^ 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. 571
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 532
20. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 907
21. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. hogar
22. ^ 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. hogar