laborioso

Forms

laborioso (feminine laboriosa, masculine plural laboriosos, feminine plural laboriosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin labōriōsus (“toilsome, laborious”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed from labor (“work, toil”) with the suffix -ōsus;^[5][1] Wiktionary calls the inserted ⟨i⟩ enigmatic, perhaps an analogy with pairs like cūra beside cūriōsus.^[5][1] De Vaan finds unconvincing the usual link of the Latin noun with labō (“to totter”).^[6]

The same Latin word gave Italian laborioso, French laborieux and English laborious.^[7] In Spanish it stands beside the older inherited labor and labrar.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The HSMS's first text with the word is Alonso de Cartagena's Oracional, printed at Murcia in 1487.^[8] Corominas dates it to 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1734) gave both senses, a person who applies himself to work with care and persistence, and a task that takes long and great labour.^[9] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 defined it as “hard-working, fond of work” and “toilsome”, the two senses it still has.^[10][4] Echegaray records the medical phrases digestión laboriosa and parto laborioso, a labour of more than twenty-four hours that needs assistance.^[11]

Timeline

• 1487 – in Alonso de Cartagena's Oracional.^[8]
• 1490 – in Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary.^[3][2]
• 1575 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[12]
• 1734 – Autoridades records both senses.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. hard-working, industrious: Es una alumna muy laboriosa.^[4][13][1]
2. laborious, toilsome; needing much work or effort: Fue un trabajo laborioso y lento.^[4][13][1]

Word family

• laboriosidad
• laboriosamente

Related words

• labor
• labrar
• trabajador

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 545
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. labor
4. ^ 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. laborioso
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. labōriōsus
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 350
8. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. laborioso
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 343
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 513
11. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. s.v. laborioso
12. ^ 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. laborioso
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. laborioso