hoz

hoz¹ sickle

Etymology tree of hoz¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin falx

French faux

English faux

Spanish hoz

From the same root · hoz¹

Latin falcātus ← falx

Latin falcifer ← falx

Latin falcō ← falx

Pronunciation

• /ˈoθ/, [ˈoθ], /ˈos/^[1]

Forms

hoz f (plural hoces)^[1] Old Spanish wrote foz, foze and foçe;^[2] DEMel's earliest primary record is foçe in a collection of Huesca charters of 1062–1063.^[2] Regional forms include joce and joci in Salamanca, jose in the Canaries and falce and falz in Aragon and Navarre.^[3]

Etymology

The word for the sickle is inherited from Old Spanish foz, inherited from Latin falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”).^[4][5][1] The Academy's dictionary of 1726–1739 notes the old form, and Cabrera traced the modern form from the Latin ablative through the old one.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese foice (older fouce), Galician fouce, Asturian fouz, Aragonese falz, Catalan falç, Old Occitan faus, French faux, Italian falce, Romanian falce and Mozarabic falche.^{[8][3][9][10]} In Romanian the word came to mean a measure of land, as much as one could cut with a sickle in a day.^[8]

De Vaan finds no sound etymology for the Latin noun: a link with Celtic and Germanic words for a pin or thorn suits the meaning, but the Latin ⟨al⟩ and final ⟨c⟩ cannot come from a root of that shape, so at most it was borrowed from another Indo-European language of Italy.^[11] Wiktionary gives the usual derivation from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelg- (“to sting; needle”) and notes the same difficulties.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest records of the tool are in early 13th-century documents: a list of expenses with five dineros paid por una foz “for a sickle”, and the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), which punishes aquel que con foz espigas cogiere “whoever gathers ears of grain with a sickle”.^[12] Corominas dates the word 1220–1250.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century charters of the monastery of Oña fix the date of a rent ante ke metades foz en las miesses “before you put the sickle to the harvest”, and the Libro de Alexandre compares cutting blades to a foz podadera, a pruning hook.^[12] Alfonso X's Lapidario describes a figure holding foz in his right hand como que quiere segar “as if about to reap”.^[13] Nebrija distinguished the hoce podadera (Latin falx putatoria), the reaping sickle and the hay sickle, and also the scythed war chariot.^[14]

Covarrubias (1611) explained the phrase de hoz y de coz from reaping: the sickle is put to the grain and the reaper breaks it with a kick.^[15] Autoridades (1734) says that the tool was once also used as a weapon, and the Academy's 1817 edition has the proverb la hoz en el haza y el hombre en la casa and the phrase meter la hoz en mies ajena “to meddle in someone else's business”.^[6][16] The sickle reached the Americas by the mid-16th century: an inventory in Lima lists six pruning sickles in 1559.^[17]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has foz for the reaping tool.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses foz for a sickle.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija lists hoce podadera, hoce para segar and hoce para feno.^[14]
• 1559 – first record in the Americas, in Lima.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the phrase de hoz y de coz.^[15]
• 1734 – Autoridades notes the old form foz and the use of the sickle as a weapon.^[6]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin falx.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sickle: a curved steel blade with a sharp or toothed inner edge, set in a wooden handle and used to reap grain and cut grass.^[5][19][1]

Word family

• hocino

hoz² gorge

Pronunciation

• /ˈoθ/, [ˈoθ], /ˈos/^[1]

Forms

hoz f (plural hoces)^[1] Early charters have foc (1011) and foze (1031), and the diminutive focego (1063).^[20] Aragonese, Navarrese and Asturian keep foz;^[21][2] Old Spanish also wrote foçe and foces.^[21][2]

Etymology

The word for the gorge is inherited from Old Spanish foz, inherited from Vulgar Latin fox (“throat; narrow pass”), the popular form of classical faux “throat, gullet”, which was mostly used in the plural.^[20][22][1] Isidore of Seville records the popular form.^[20] Corominas notes that the ⟨o⟩ of Portuguese foz and of Catalan fou shows the Latin base had /o/ and not /au/, and that the derived verbs offōcō and suffōcō suggest that ⟨o⟩ may be the older vowel.^[20] The only possible traces of ⟨au⟩ are place names: Falces in Navarre and an old name of Villahoz in Burgos.^[20]

The same Latin word is Italian foce “river mouth, narrow pass”, Old Occitan fotz, Aragonese foz and Asturian foz; the Portuguese word means the mouth of a river, and the Catalan word also a cave or a narrow sea channel.^{[23][21][24][25]} The Latin noun has no known etymology.^[11] The learned doublet is fauces, first recorded in 1624.^[20][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in place descriptions in charters from 1011 on.^[20] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the hero rides downstream along a gorge: la foz ayuso va.^[12][20]

Semantic evolution

Berceo, in the Vida de Santo Domingo, uses the word for the cave where some fleeing Moors hid, the sense the Catalan cognate also has.^[20] In 13th-century royal privileges foz marks boundaries, as in la foz de Lobaraes.^[12] Covarrubias compared such a narrow valley between two hills to the throat of the body, and named the gardens of Cuenca's two rivers hocinos after these gorges.^[15] Autoridades (1734) defines the word as the narrow pass of a deep valley or of a river between two ranges, which it says is also called garganta.^[6] Moliner notes that the word is common in place names.^[19] In Andalusia hoz names a wide bend of a river, larger than a hocino.^[26]

Timeline

• 1011 – first record, in a charter, as foc.^[20]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has la foz.^[12][20]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses foz for a cave.^[20][12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the word and the derivative hozino.^[15]
• 1624 – the learned doublet fauces is first recorded.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin fauces.^[27]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow passage in a deep valley, especially one cut by a river between two mountain ranges; a gorge.^[5][19][1]

Word family

• ahocinarse