lizo

Forms

lizo m (plural lizos)^[1] Old Spanish spelt it with a voiced ⟨z⟩ (/dz/), which Alonso de Palencia and Nebrija still show; in Argentina it is written liso.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līcium (“thread, heddle”), the cross thread that separates the warp threads so that the weft can pass, and then any thread or cord.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese liço, Catalan lliç, Italian liccio, French lisse, Occitan liça and Romanian iță.^[5][1][6] The dialects of Aragon have liza “strong hemp thread, twine”, from the Latin plural licia.^[2][7]

The Latin word has no Indo-European etymology.^[8] Eichner reads a form on the inscribed cippus of the Roman Forum as an older Latin word for “thread” with a diphthong, and Wiktionary allows that the word may come from a non-Indo-European language.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosarios del Escorial (c. 1400) give the first record of lizo.^[2][3] An earlier use is in Alfonso X's General Estoria (before 1284, in a 15th-century copy), which praises the Egyptian skill in mixing the lizos in cloth with great subtlety.^[9] Nebrija defines it as lizo para ordir e texer, “heddle for warping and weaving”, Latin licium.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alonso de Palencia (1490) speaks of the lizos that bind the woollen threads of cloth.^[2] Cervantes uses the word for the threads of a fine fabric: una tela de varios y hermosos lizos tejida.^[10] The Academy's dictionaries from 1817 to 1869 defined it as each of the threads into which weavers divide the silk or worsted for the shuttle to pass, and as the thread of a fabric; in 1899 the first sense became a strong thread used as warp.^[11][12][13] In Chile lizo is a small stick that replaces the shuttle in looms for fine blankets, and in northwestern Argentina the liso is the device that crosses the warp threads after each pass.^[14][15][2] Moliner adds the device that raises and lowers the warp threads (the heddle frame), with lizo alto and lizo bajo for upright and horizontal looms.^[16][17]

Timeline

• before 1284 – Alfonso X's General Estoria (15th-century copy) has lizos in cloth.^[9]
• c. 1400 – first record in the Glosarios del Escorial.^[2][3]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia writes of the lizos of cloth.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: lizo para ordir e texer, Latin licium; also the verb enlizar.^[2]
• 1571 – a Mexico City vocabulary records lizo para ordir y texer.^[18]
• 1817 – the Academy defines the weaver's thread.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy's first sense becomes a strong warp thread.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (textiles, often in the plural) A strong thread used as the warp of certain fabrics.^[4][1][16]
2. (textiles) Each of the threads into which weavers divide the silk or yarn so that the shuttle (lanzadera) with the weft (trama) can pass; a heddle.^[4]
3. (Chile, northwestern Argentina) A small stick that does the work of the shuttle in a loom.^[4][15]

Word family

• enlizar

Related words

• Latin licium
• Catalan lliç
• Portuguese liço

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 j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 673
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lizo
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. lizo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ 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. 5, 203
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. licium
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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lizo
10. ^ Cabrera, Ramón (1837), Diccionario de etimologías de la lengua castellana, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta de Marcos Bueno, p. s.v. lizo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 533
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 471
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 607
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 509
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lizo
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lizo
17. ^ 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. 372
18. ^ 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. lizo