jugo

Forms

jugo m (plural jugos)^[1] Old Spanish had sugo and xugo side by side;^[2][3] Alfonso de Palencia (1490) still used only sugo, while C. de las Casas (1570) recorded only xugo.^[2][3] The Alfonsine Moamín has the spelling çugo.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish xugo, inherited from Latin sūcus (“juice, sap”).^[2][5][6][1] Corominas explains the initial /x/, Old Spanish /ʃ/ written ⟨x⟩, by the influence of the related enjugar and enjuto, which were spelt with ⟨x⟩ in the old language; he rejects a regular or dialectal change of the Latin /s/.^[2][5][7] Bénaben suggests another view, that Old Spanish confused initial /s/ with /ʃ/, as in jabón from Latin sāpō, jibia from sēpia and jeringa from syringa.^[7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese sugo, Catalan suc, Occitan suc, Italian sugo and Romanian suc.^[8] García de Diego adds Leonese and Salamancan zugo.^[9]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *soukos, from Proto-Indo-European *souḱ-o- (“juice”).^[10][1] De Vaan relates it to the root of sūgō (“to suck”) and of Old English sūgan (“to suck”), which appears with both a final /k/ and a final /g/;^[10] Schrijver took this wavering as a sign of a loan from a substrate language.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236), in the line xugo del fuste seco ¿quí lo podrié sacar? “who could squeeze juice out of dry wood?”.^[2][11] The DCECH notes that one 14th-century manuscript has sugo there and another xugo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word already meant the sap of plants and the fluids of the body.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) defined jugo as the substance of a thing, and noted that a dry thing is said no tener jugo.^[12] In the 18th century Autoridades treated sugo as old-fashioned.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added the figurative sense, the useful, substantial part of anything, and that of 1884 the jugo gástrico of physiology.^[13][14]

In Latin America and the Canary Islands jugo is the ordinary word for fruit juice, where Spain prefers zumo.^[15][1] In rural Mexico it also means the moisture of soil ready for sowing.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos has xugo.^[2][11]
• 1250–1300 – the Moamín uses çugo for the juice of liquorice.^[4]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia still writes only sugo.^[2]
• 1570 – C. de las Casas records only xugo; the same year it is first recorded in Peru.^[2][17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines jugo as the substance of a thing.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the figurative sense.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and jugo gástrico.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. juice: the liquid drawn from animal or plant matter by pressing, cooking or distilling.^[6][1]
2. (Latin America, Canary Islands) Fruit juice: Pidió un jugo de mango bien frío.^[1][15]
3. (physiology) A fluid secretion of a gland, as in jugo gástrico “gastric juice” and jugo pancreático.^[6][18]
4. (figurative) The useful, substantial part of anything: Aquella charla tuvo poco jugo.^[6][1]

Word family

• jugoso
• jugosidad
• juguera
• juguería

Related words

• suculento
• enjugar
• Latin sūcus

Usage notes

Sacar (el) jugo a algo means to get the most out of it.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 537
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. jugo
4. ^ 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. jugo
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jugo
6. ^ 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. jugo
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. jugo
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. sūcus
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6449
10. ^ a b c 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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. jugo
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1025
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 509
14. ^ 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. 619
15. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. jugo
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jugo
17. ^ 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. jugo
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jugo