huevo

Forms

huevo m (plural huevos)^[1] Old Spanish texts write uevo, ueuo, hueuo, veuo, uueuo, guebos and huebos.^[2][3] Güevo is a popular Castilian and Asturian form, and the Pyrenees have güego.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish uevo, inherited from Vulgar Latin *ŏvum, the popular pronunciation with an open /ɔ/ of Latin ōvum (“egg”).^[3][5][6][1] The open vowel, assumed by all the Romance forms, regularly became the diphthong ⟨ue⟩ in Spanish.^[3][7] The learned doublet is ovo.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese ovo, Asturian güevu, Aragonese uego, Catalan ou, Occitan uòu, French œuf, Italian uovo and Romanian ou.^[8][4][1][9] The Latin neuter plural ōva gave hueva “roe”, felt as a feminine singular with a collective sense.^[3][7]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *ōw(j)om and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), with cognates in Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión), Old English ǣg and Old High German ei.^[10][1] De Vaan prefers to see it as a lengthened-grade derivative of the word for “bird” (Latin avis), “that which belongs to a bird”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is uevo in Berceo (1220–1250).^[3][5] In the Vida de San Millán a sick man is sent to the saint de sos uebos guisado, “provided with his eggs”.^[11] DEMel cites huevo in the Fuero de Plasencia, which it dates 1221, and the Fuero de Zorita (1218–1250) punishes striking another person con veuo, “with an egg”.^[2][11] Alfonso X's Lapidario compares the colour of a stone to the yolk of an egg, yema de ueuo.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word is common to all periods and all Romance languages.^[3] Autoridades in 1734 noted that huevos without qualification means hens' eggs.^[13] The Academy's 1817 dictionary also recorded the shoemaker's hollowed block of wood on which the sole is shaped, the wax shell filled with scented water that was thrown at carnival, and the phrase huevo de Juanelo, something that seems very hard but is easy once one knows how.^[14][15] Salvá in 1846 recorded the plural for “testicles”, a sense that Medieval Latin ova already had.^[16][17] In biology the word now also names the zygote and the ovum.^[6]

In the Americas the first record is from Santo Domingo in 1549.^[18] Regional senses include “a difficult situation” (El Salvador, Uruguay), “a fool” (Uruguay), “money” (Costa Rica) and, as an adjective, “cheap, easy” (Ecuador, Peru).^[6][19] In the Canaries huevos de Mogador are stale eggs, and anything spoilt.^[20]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, uevo, in Berceo.^[3][5]
• 1221 – huevo in the Fuero de Plasencia, as DEMel dates it.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the yolk, yema de ueuo.^[12]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary uses uevo to gloss Latin ovum and its compounds.^[21]
• 1549 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• c. 1560 – first record of the derivative hueva “roe”.^[3][5]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines it.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records the shoemaker's block and the carnival wax egg.^[14]
• 1846 – Salvá records the plural for “testicles”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An egg: the rounded body laid by female birds and other animals, containing the embryo and its food.^[6][1]
2. A hen's egg as food: Para la tortilla necesitas seis huevos.^[6][22]
3. A block of hard wood with a hollow in the middle, used by shoemakers to shape the sole.^[6]
4. (historical) A wax shell filled with scented water, thrown in fun at carnival.^[6]
5. (vulgar, usually in the plural) A testicle; in the plural also “guts, courage”.^[6][1]
6. (biology) A zygote; also the ovum, the female gamete.^[6][1]
7. (El Salvador, Uruguay) A difficult situation or task.^[6][19]
8. (Uruguay, colloquial) A foolish person.^[6]
9. (Peru, Ecuador; adjective) Of a price, easy to pay; of a task, easy to do.^[6][19]

Word family

• hueva
• overa
• desovar
• huevero
• huevera
• aovar

Related words

• oval
• óvalo
• óvulo
• ovario
• Latin ōvum
• Portuguese ovo

Usage notes

The earliest hit under this lemma in the CDH, huebos in the Cantar de mio Cid (huebos me serié, “I would have need of it”), is the Old Spanish noun meaning “need”, not the egg.^[11] Set phrases include huevo duro “hard-boiled egg” and huevo batido, an egg beaten with sugar, milk or wine.^[6][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. huevo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 427
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ovum
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huevo
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. huevo
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. huevo
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ovum
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 142
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. huevo
12. ^ 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. huevo
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 187
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 480
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 396
16. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 597
17. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
18. ^ 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, p. s.v. güevo
19. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. huevo
20. ^ 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. huevo
21. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. huevo
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huevo
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. huevo