hollín

Forms

hollín m (plural hollines)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish follín, inherited from Vulgar Latin fullīgō (“soot”), the Vulgar Latin form of classical Latin fūlīgō.^[2][3][4][1] The form with ⟨ll⟩ is attested in Latin glosses, beside the classical form with a single ⟨l⟩, a doubling with many parallels in Latin.^[2]

Corominas says that Italian fuliggine comes from the classical form, while the Rhaeto-Romance and Ibero-Romance words must come from the vulgar one: Portuguese fuligem, and with a change of suffix Galician feluxe.^[2] Romanian funingine can come from either.^[2] The form Mozarabic fulliyín is only a slight alteration of the Latin.^[2] Aragonese follín keeps the initial ⟨f⟩ of Old Spanish.^[5][1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂li- (“smoke, dust”), which de Vaan compares with Sanskrit and Baltic words such as Lithuanian dū́lis (“smoke used in beekeeping”).^[6][1] Wiktionary relates it to fūmus (“smoke”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moamín's book on hunting animals, translated for Alfonso X, prescribes a weighed dose of folin in a remedy, beside washing with vinegar.^[7] Corominas cites the 13th-century Libro de los caballos, where soot is one ingredient of a horse remedy with vinegar, pitch, salt and oil.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Corominas calls it a popular word of every period and region of the language.^[2] Old Spanish texts use it for the black deposit of fire and smoke: in an Old Testament of about 1400 Moses throws handfuls of follín del forno into the air.^[8] Palencia and Nebrija have the modern spelling, and Nebrija distinguishes the soot of the hearth from that of a metal furnace.^[2]

Regional variants include jollín in Álava and Andalusia, hollén in La Rioja and holgüín in Ciudad Real.^[9] Corominas rejects García de Diego's attempt to derive these from Vulgar Latin variants, since they are recent.^[2] The Andalusian form jollín came to mean “uproar, revelry”, from the late 18th century, and the DLE now lists that as a colloquial sense of hollín.^[2][4] In Puerto Rico hollín means ash.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1250 – Moamín's treatise has folin in a remedy.^[7]
• c. 1275 – the Libro de los caballos has follín.^[2][12]
• 1490 – Palencia's Universal vocabulario has the spelling hollín.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has hollín and the derivative deshollinar.^[2]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Molina's Nahuatl dictionary in Mexico City.^[13]
• late 18th century – Ramón de la Cruz uses the Andalusian jollín for “revelry”.^[2]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin fuligo.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. soot: the greasy black substance that smoke leaves on surfaces: Hay que limpiar el hollín del tubo de la estufa.^[4][1]
2. (colloquial) uproar, commotion; jollín.^[4][15]
3. (Puerto Rico) ash.^[10]

Word family

• deshollinar
• holliniento
• deshollinador
• hollinar

Related words

• fuliginoso
• tizne
• Latin fūlīgō
• Portuguese fuligem

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 h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 377
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hollín
4. ^ 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. hollín
5. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. hollín
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hollín
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2962
10. ^ 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. hollín
11. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. hollín
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. hollín
13. ^ 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. hollín
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 533
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hollín