magro

Forms

magro (feminine magra, masculine plural magros, feminine plural magras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin macer (“thin, lean”), through Old Spanish magro.^[2][3][4][1] The word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese magro, Galician magro, Catalan magre, Occitan magre, French maigre, Italian magro and Romanian macru.^[2][5][6]

The Latin adjective continues *makros (“long, lean”), from *mh₂ḱrós (“long”).^[7][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”), Old High German magar and Old Norse magr “lean”, and maklant- (“thin, meagre”).^[7] The English word meager comes from the same Latin word through French.^[1] Learned words of the same root are macilento, from macilentus, and demacrarse.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and the BDELC date the first record to Berceo (1220–1250), where in the Milagros it rather means “scanty”.^[2][3] DEMel lists the form macre in a document of 1128 from the reconquest of the Ebro valley.^[8] In Alfonso X's prose it describes a lean face, de magra cara.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Until the Golden Age the adjective was applied to people and animals in the sense of “thin, lean”, the opposite of gordo, with examples down to María de Ágreda in 1660, whom Autoridades quotes.^[2][10] From the 17th century it came to be applied above all to meat without fat, the sense that predominates today.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 already gave carne magra as his example.^[11] Autoridades recorded the feminine noun magra “slice of ham”, and the Academy added the masculine noun for the lean pork near the loin in 1899.^[3][10][12] Moliner notes that it is no longer common of people and that it is also said of poor, exhausted farmland.^[13] It is also used for something scant or meagre, as in un magro resultado.^[14][15] In Salamanca magro means ham.^[16]

Timeline

• 1128 – DEMel's macre in a document of the Ebro reconquest.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[2][3]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's prose has de magra cara “lean-faced”.^[9]
• 1490 – the derivative magreza in Alfonso de Palencia.^[2][3]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, bestias magras e flacas in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1495 – Nebrija has enmagrecer.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it by carne magra.^[11]
• 1660 – María de Ágreda still applies it to the human body.^[2]
• 1734 – magra “slice of ham”.^[3]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the noun for lean pork near the loin.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. lean, thin; with little or no fat: Prefiero la carne magra para el guiso.^[4][1][13]
2. Of farmland: poor, exhausted.^[13]
3. Scant, meagre, below what was hoped: Con aquel magro sueldo no llegaba a fin de mes.^[14][15]

Noun

1. (colloquial) Lean pork from near the loin.^[4][1]
2. (feminine, magra) A slice of ham.^[4]

Word family

• magrura
• enmagrecer
• magrez

Related words

• macilento
• demacrar
• Latin macer
• Portuguese magro
• Catalan magre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 764
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. magro
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. magro
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. macer
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. magro
9. ^ 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. magro
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 458
11. ^ 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. 1103
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 621
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. magro
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. magro
15. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. magro
16. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 522
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. magro