más

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin magis (“more”), through Old Spanish maes, later contracted to mas.^[2][3][4][1] The older form is found mainly in Leonese documents of 1222 and 1246, and mais in the Libro de Alexandre and in a Murcian document of 1262.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese mais, Galician máis, Catalan més, Occitan mais, French mais, Italian mai and Romanian mai.^[1][5][6] It forms the comparative in Romanian, Old Occitan, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese, while French and Italian use the descendants of plūs.^[5][7] In Latin the word stressed degree and preference, “rather”, while the other word counted quantity.^[7]

The OLD analyses the Latin word as the root of magnus (“great”) with a reduced grade of the comparative suffix, and compares Oscan mais.^[8] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *m̥ǵh₂-is, from *méǵh₂yōs “greater”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to about 950, in the Glosas Emilianenses.^[2][3] As a conjunction meaning “but” the word occurs from 1107 and in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy): „Conbidarle ien de grado, mas ninguno non osava” “they would gladly have invited him, but no one dared”.^[2][3][9]

Semantic evolution

The adversative sense goes back to Vulgar Latin, where magis at first added a further point, “there is more, moreover”, and then came to introduce a fact set against what had been said.^[2][3] Corominas adds that Latin magis in the sense “rather”, found in Catullus and Virgil, may be the real source of this sense.^[2] Modern Spanish writes the unstressed conjunction mas without an accent, and Portuguese likewise distinguishes mas “but” from mais “more”.^[10][2]

Alfonso X's prose of the 13th century already uses mas for excess and superiority in comparisons.^[11] Compounds followed early: demás in 1221 and además about 1250;^[1][12] demás in turn gave the noun demasía “excess” (1438) and demasiado (about 1460 as an adjective, 1490 as an adverb).^[3] Old Aragonese, like Old Catalan and Galician, also used the word for “also, besides”.^[2] In arithmetic it means “plus”.^[1][12] In Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador ¿qué más? is a familiar greeting.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 950 – first record, in the Glosas Emilianenses.^[2][3]
• 1107 – first record of the conjunction “but”.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses mas as a conjunction.^[9][2]
• 1202 – the Cortes de Benavente, the earliest text in the CDH that survives in a contemporary copy, has mas “but”.^[9]
• 1222 – the older form maes in a Leonese document.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario calls Aristotle mas complido delos otros filosofos.^[11]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin magis.^[15]

Meanings

Adverb

1. more: before an adjective or adverb, a higher degree than something else: Este camino es más corto.; with the article, most: la casa más alta del pueblo.^[4][1]
2. After a verb, more often, longer or more intensely: Hoy has trabajado más que ayer.^[4]
3. In exclamations, so, such: ¡Qué día más largo!^[4][1]
4. Especially, all the more: Le gusta el café, y más si es fuerte.^[4]
5. In negative sentences, any more, again: No volvió más.^[4][1]

Determiner

1. More: a greater number or amount of something: Necesitamos más sillas.^[4][1]

Conjunction

1. (mathematics) plus: Dos más tres son cinco.^[1][12]

Word family

• además
• demás
• demasiado

Related words

• mas
• Latin magis
• Portuguese mais

Usage notes

The stressed más “more” is written with an accent; the unstressed conjunction mas “but”, its unstressed form, is written without one and is now mainly literary.^[10][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 867
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. más
4. ^ 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. más
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. magis
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4032
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mais
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. más
10. ^ a b 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. mas
11. ^ 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. más
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. más
13. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. más
14. ^ 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. más
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 640