lechoso

Forms

lechoso (feminine lechosa, masculine plural lechosos, feminine plural lechosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lactōsus (“milky”), a word known only from the glossaries.^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of leche, and Wiktionary notes that it can also be read as the noun with the suffix -oso.^[4][1]

The same word is Portuguese leitoso, Galician leitoso, Asturian llechosu, Catalan lletós and French laiteux.^[1][5][6][7] The Latin adjective is formed on lac (“milk”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *glg-t- (“milk”) for the Latin noun;^[8][1] Wiktionary calls its origin controversial.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old Spanish text archive's first record is the Epílogo en medicina y en cirugía, a medical book printed at Pamplona in 1495.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Terreros called it a botanists' word for plants that give milk, and the Academy's 1817 edition defined it as said of plants and fruits with a white, milk-like juice.^[10][11] The general sense “like milk” is in Domínguez's dictionary of 1846 and in Alemany's of 1917.^[12][13] From the milky sap, lechoso became the name of trees in the Americas: in 1745 a Venezuelan report praises the milk of el lechoso for setting bones, and the Academy recorded “papaya tree” in 1899.^[14][15][16] The papaya tree is lechoso in Central America, the Caribbean and Venezuela, and the fruit lechosa in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.^[17][2][18] In Venezuela and Ecuador the adjective also means “lucky”, a sense Malaret recorded for Venezuela in 1946.^[19][17]

Timeline

• 1495 – the Epílogo en medicina y en cirugía, printed at Pamplona.^[9]
• 1745 – first record in the Americas, a Venezuelan tree name.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary defines it of plants and fruits with milky juice.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the noun “papaya tree”.^[15]
• 1946 – Malaret records the Venezuelan sense “lucky”.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. milky: like milk (leche) in colour, look or texture: Tenía la piel de un blanco lechoso.^[2][1]
2. Of a plant or fruit, having a white juice like milk, a látex.^[2][20]
3. (Venezuela, Ecuador) lucky.^[2][17]

Noun

1. (Central America, Caribbean, Venezuela) The papaya tree (papayo).^[2][17]
2. (feminine, Dominican Republic, Venezuela) The papaya fruit.^[2][18]
3. (Ecuador) A tree of the genus Scalesia of the Galápagos.^[1]

Related words

• leche
• lácteo
• Latin lactōsus
• Portuguese leitoso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. lechoso
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. leche
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. leitoso
6. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. llechosu
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. lletós
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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. lechoso
10. ^ 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, 431
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 522
12. ^ 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, 1074
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1006
14. ^ 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. lechoso
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 593
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 658
17. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lechoso
18. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. lechoso
19. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 504
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lechoso