izar

Forms

izar (first-person singular present izo, first-person singular preterite icé, past participle izado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French hisser (“to hoist”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas traces the French verb to Old French hicier (“to set a dog on, urge”), recorded from 1180, and takes it as an onomatopoeia: first the hiss of a hunter urging on his dog, then the cry of an officer urging sailors to haul on a rope.^[2][3] In French the nautical verb is recorded in Rabelais (1552) and Nicot (1606), and a derivative meaning “halyard” from 1538.^[2]

In Corominas's view the Germanic verbs come from French and not the reverse: Middle Dutch hyssen, Dutch hijsen (the source of English hoist), Middle Low German hissen, which passed on to the Scandinavian languages.^[2] He rejects the etymon Swedish hissa of Diez and Meyer-Lübke as a recent loan, and Barbier's Frankish *hiskjan (“to whistle”) on phonetic grounds.^[2] The DHLF and Wiktionary instead derive the French verb from Low German, the DEEH and Alemany derive the Spanish verb from Dutch, and the Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 from German.^{[5][1][6][7][8][9]}

Portuguese içar, Catalan hissar and Italian issare are borrowings from French as well.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Antonio de Guevara, in 1539, describing the sailors' cries: por decir Tirad de esto o de aquello, dicen ellos a grandes voces íza, íza “instead of saying ‘pull on this or that’, they shout at the top of their voices ‘hoist, hoist!’”.^[2][10] Corominas notes that the verb was at first used absolutely, as a word of command, as sailors still use it, and that the transitive use with a sail, flag or mast is secondary.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb has stayed a nautical word for raising yards and sails by their ropes, and also for raising anything on a rope, such as a flag.^[4][10][11] In the slang of the underworld izado meant “living with a mistress”, recorded in 1609, and iza “prostitute”, from the end of the 15th century, which Corominas explains from izarse “to live in concubinage”.^[2] The participle has also become a noun, as in el izado de la bandera “the raising of the flag”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1539 – Antonio de Guevara records the sailors' command iza, iza.^[2][3]
• 1573 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, in a list of sailors' orders.^[13]
• 1587 – a Mexican text describes how the yard is hoisted with the capstan.^[13]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary has the word.^[2]
• 1609 – the slang participle izado “living with a mistress”.^[2]
• 1640 – Saavedra Fajardo uses it for the sailors hoisting sails.^[2][10]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros gives French hisser as its equivalent.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives an etymology, from German.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (nautical, transitive) To hoist: to raise something by pulling on the rope from which it hangs: Al amanecer izaron la vela mayor.^[4][1]
2. To raise a flag up a mast: Cada lunes izan la bandera en el patio del colegio.^[15][16]

Related words

• French hisser
• English hoist
• Catalan hissar
• Italian issare

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 468
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. izar
4. ^ a b c 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. izar
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3271
7. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 973
8. ^ 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. 610
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 569
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 314
11. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 1019
12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. izar
13. ^ 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. izar
14. ^ 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, 371
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. izar
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. izar