jeringa

Forms

jeringa f (plural jeringas)^[1] The older form was siringa, recorded by Nebrija; the spelling xeringa appears in 1498 and was still the Academy's form in 1739.^[2][3][4] Aragonese dialects have cheringa, jaringa, charinga and chiringa.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish siringa, borrowed from Late Latin syringa (“syringe, enema”).^[2][6][7] Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva call the Latin source Medieval Latin.^[1][8] The Latin word was made on the accusative of Ancient Greek σῦριγξ (sŷrinx, “reed, pipe, tube”), which in Greek medicine also named a fistula.^[9][10]

Corominas explains the change of the first syllable in two steps: the following ⟨i⟩ turned the initial ⟨s⟩ into ⟨x⟩, and dissimilation then changed the first ⟨i⟩ to ⟨e⟩.^[2] Wiktionary counts the change of /s/ to /ʃ/ among the sporadic sound changes of Old Spanish, as in jabón and jugo.^[1]

The same Latin word is Catalan xeringa, Portuguese seringa, French seringue and Italian sciringa.^[2][11] Catalan went through the same changes, with the form in ⟨xe-⟩ first recorded at the end of the 15th century.^[12] Basque borrowed the word as Basque xiringa.^[13]

The Greek noun is first found in the Iliad, meaning a pipe or flute, and later named other hollow things such as a spear case, the windpipe and a blood vessel.^[14] Wiktionary takes its suffix as a sign of Pre-Greek origin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary of about 1495 has siringa de cirugiano, a surgeon's syringe, glossed with Latin terms for an enema.^[2][6] The CDH's first xeringa is in a 1498 translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery, which recommends washing con xeringa segund el modo de Albucasis “with a syringe in the manner of Albucasis”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the instrument served for enemas and for washing wounds;^[15] Herrera's agriculture of 1513 also uses it to squirt juice and vinegar at pests.^[3] Terreros, at the end of the 18th century, also gives the enema itself and, by analogy, a nuisance.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 has the figurative sense of a tiresome insistence, and Domínguez in 1846 notes the exclamation ¡qué jeringa!^[16][17] The 1884 edition describes a glass or metal cylinder with a plunger and gives the Latin etymology for the first time.^[18]

The sense “annoyance” is now mainly American: the DLE lists it for the Antilles, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama, and in Bolivia and Uruguay jeringa is also an annoying person.^[7][19] In Peru it can mean slang or jargon, and in parts of Bolivia the gullet of a cow.^[19] In León it is also a wooden tube that young men used to squirt water at girls in carnival, and ¡jeringas! is an exclamation of annoyance.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the older form siringa for a surgeon's syringe.^[2][6]
• 1498 – the form xeringa in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery.^[3]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in an inventory in Puerto Rico.^[21]
• 1513 – Herrera's Obra de agricultura uses a xeringa against pests.^[3]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters xeringa, with a quotation from Quevedo.^[2][4]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the figurative sense of a tiresome insistence.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin syringa and Greek for the first time.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A syringe: a tube ending in a narrow nozzle, with a plunger inside that draws a liquid in and then forces or injects it out: La enfermera llenó la jeringa con la vacuna.^[7][1]
2. A similar instrument for forcing in soft materials, such as the filling of sausages.^[7][22]
3. (colloquial, chiefly Latin America) An annoyance, a nuisance.^[7][23]
4. (colloquial, Bolivia, Uruguay) An annoying, tiresome person; also used as an adjective.^[7][19]

Word family

• jeringuilla
• jeringar
• jeringazo
• jeringón

Related words

• siringa
• Catalan xeringa
• Portuguese seringa
• French seringue

Usage notes

As the name of a plant whose stems were made into pipes, the diminutive jeringuilla prevailed, with an Andalusian variant celinda.^[2] Through Portuguese, American Spanish has seringa and siringa for the rubber of an Amazonian tree, probably the same word.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 509
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. jeringa
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 538
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6517
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jeringa
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. jeringa
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. jeringa
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. seringue
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8504
12. ^ 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. 9, 511
13. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 761
14. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b 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, 385
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 419
17. ^ 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. 2, 1029
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. 615
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. jeringa
20. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León
21. ^ 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. jeringa
22. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. jeringa
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jeringa