maleza

Forms

maleza f (plural malezas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malitia (“badness, wickedness”), formed from malus (“bad”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin ending -itia gave -eza, as in tristeza from tristitia.^[6] The learned malicia is a doublet, taken from the same Latin word in the 13th century.^[3][1]

The same Latin word is Catalan malesa, which in the Catalan and Gascon Pyrenees means “rough, steep ground”, and the French malice, a learned borrowing.^[2][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in a promise to cast la maleza before the people and drive out the Hivites and the Canaanites: E echaré la maleza delante ty e esterraré a los Eveos e a los Cananeos.^[9][10] Berceo's Milagros has the old sense “wickedness”: contra la mi maleza nunqa fallé egual “I never found an equal to my wickedness”.^[2][9][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish maleza meant “wickedness, evil” and “bad condition”: the astrological Judizios de las estrellas says of a child born under a good sign that non aura en el maleza ninguna “there will be no evil in him”.^[3][11][9] The sense “thicket of shrubs” grew out of the older one, the bad, useless growth of the land;^[3][12][13] Nebrija in 1495 glossed maleza o breña with Latin frutetum.^[3][12][13] Corominas suggests that Nebrija's breña points to the sense “rough ground” still heard in the Catalan Pyrenees.^[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave both senses, the first as a synonym of maldad, and the Academy marked “wickedness” as obsolete from 1817.^[14][15] In several American countries maleza is a single weed; in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic a minor ailment, and in Argentina and Chile it was used for pus.^[4][16][17] In Gran Canaria it names a pest of plants, and also a rabble.^[18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has maleza.^[9][10]
• c. 1246–1252 – Berceo's Milagros uses it for “wickedness”, the first record Corominas gives.^[2][3]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor speaks of the creditor's maleza.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the sense “thicket, scrub”.^[3][13]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico, of the thick scrub that blocked the way.^[20]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the thicket of wild plants and thorns.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy marks the sense “wickedness” as obsolete.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thicket or undergrowth of shrubs such as brambles and rockroses: El zorro desapareció entre la maleza.^[4][1]
2. An abundance of weeds in sown land.^[4][21]
3. (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela) A weed.^[4][1]
4. (Cuba, Dominican Republic) A minor ailment.^[4][16]
5. (obsolete) Wickedness, iniquity; a bad condition.^[4]

Related words

• mal
• malo
• malicia
• maldad
• Latin malitia
• Catalan malesa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 784
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. malo
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. maleza
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 462
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. malesa
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. maleza
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. maleza
11. ^ 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. maleza
12. ^ a b 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. 399
13. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 376
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 463
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 545
16. ^ 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. maleza
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 528
18. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. maleza
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. maleza
20. ^ 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. maleza
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maleza