manchar

Forms

manchar (first-person singular present mancho, first-person singular preterite manché, past participle manchado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin maculō (“to spot, stain”), from macula (“spot, stain”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary gives the Vulgar Latin forms as *manclāre and maclāre, and calls the word a doublet of the learned macular and of magular.^[1]

As in the noun mancha, the nasal of the first syllable spread to the end of it in early times: Corominas places this at a stage *magla > *mangla rather than at *mancla, because of the voicing seen in mancilla, and the group after the consonant then gave /tʃ/ regularly.^[2][3] The same verb is Italian macchiare and Portuguese manchar, and Portuguese also has magoar (“to bruise”) from it.^[5][1] Corominas sees no reason to take Portuguese mancha as a Castilian loan, as the REW does.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from the noun with the verbal suffix -ō.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in Abraham de Toledo's Moamín (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century), where some hawks are manchados en los pechos e en las espaldas “spotted on the breast and the back”.^[7] Corominas dates the verb to the first half of the 14th century.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval examples are scarce because Old Spanish used mancilla for the moral and figurative senses.^[2] Nebrija pairs the two verbs: Manchar o manzillar for Latin maculo.^[8]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) gives three senses: to soil something so that part of it loses its colour, to tarnish a person's name, and in painting to lay in the areas of light and shade before finishing.^[9] The Academy marked the reflexive use in 1817, and its 1884 edition took the verb from mancha.^[10][11] In Mexican popular speech the verb is used, as a euphemism, for going too far, and Wiktionary records the phrase no manches.^[12][1] In Honduras it names a way of playing with spinning tops.^[13]

Timeline

• 1250 – Abraham de Toledo's Moamín (in a 13th-century copy) has hawks manchados.^[7]
• first half of the 14th century – the date Corominas gives for the verb.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives manchar o manzillar for Latin maculo.^[8]
• 1564 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[14]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative and painting senses.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary marks the reflexive use.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the verb from mancha.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stain or soil something, making part of it lose its colour; also reflexive: Se manchó la camisa de tinta.^[4][1]
2. To tarnish the good name of something or someone; also reflexive.^[4][9]
3. (painting) To begin a picture by laying in the first colours.^[4]
4. (Mexico, colloquial, intransitive) To go too far.^[12][1]

Word family

• manchadizo
• manchamanteles
• desmanchar

Related words

• mancha
• mancilla
• macular
• magullar
• inmaculado
• Latin maculō

Usage notes

A separate Aragonese verb manchar means to work the bellows of organs and forges.^[4][15] It comes from mancha “bellows”, which is Catalan manxa, from Latin mantica (“bag, saddlebag”).^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 797
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mancha
4. ^ a b c d e 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. manchar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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. manchar
8. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 376
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 472
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 547
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 669
12. ^ 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. manchar
13. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 533
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. manchar
15. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 799
16. ^ 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. mancha