mear

Forms

mear (first-person singular present meo, first-person singular preterite meé, past participle meado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin meiāre (“to urinate”), the form, moved to the first conjugation in Vulgar Latin, of Latin mēiō, which belonged to the third conjugation.^[2][3][4][1] The vulgar form is recorded from the 4th century in several grammarians and in an inscription.^[2] Corominas thinks the change of conjugation came about under the influence of *pissiare or of cacare.^[2]

The vulgar form survives also in Portuguese mijar, Galician mexar, Asturian mexar, Sardinian meare and Dalmatian miur.^[2][5][6] Most other Romance languages, from Romanian to Catalan, adopted that imitative verb instead.^[2]

The classical verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃meyǵʰ- (“to urinate”), and its cognates include Ancient Greek ὀμείχω (omeíkhō) and Lithuanian mỹžti.^[7][1] Latin also had the nasal present mingō, a doublet of the same root, from which Spanish later took the learned words micción and mingitorio.^[1][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's first record is mear in the Fuero de Plasencia, dated 1221.^[9] In the 1250 Moamín and in Alfonso X's Lapidario it is used of passing water, and the Lapidario prescribes a stone for a man que meia sangre “who passes blood”.^[10][11] Corominas dated the word only from the glossaries of Toledo and El Escorial, about 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the verb has always been in general use, though it is held to be vulgar.^[2] Autoridades said that orinar was the more polite word.^[12] From 1817 the Academy defined mear only by referring to orinar.^[13] Covarrubias recorded the proverb Mear claro, y una higa para el médico “piss clear and a fig for the doctor”, and the phrase mearle el perro la contera, said of a man who wears his sword carelessly low.^[14] Autoridades added mear la pajuela “to outdo someone”.^[12]

The pronominal mearse means to wet oneself, and figuratively to be desperate to urinate or to laugh uncontrollably, mearse de risa.^[15][1] In Mexico, Central America and Uruguay mear fuera de la escupidera means to go off the point or to break a rule.^[16]

Timeline

• 1221 – the Fuero de Plasencia has mear.^[9]
• 1250 – the Moamín, the book of hunting animals, uses the verb.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of a man who passes blood.^[11]
• c. 1400 – the glossaries of Toledo and El Escorial, the DCECH's first record.^[2][3]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin meio, and records the derivatives meada, meados and escomearse.^[17][3]
• 1542 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin meio and records the proverb Mear claro, y una higa para el médico.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin meiare.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (vulgar) To piss, urinate; also used transitively and as mearse: El perro meó en la puerta del vecino.^[4][1]
2. (pronominal, colloquial) To wet oneself; to urinate somewhere not meant for it.^[1][15]
3. (pronominal, colloquial) To be desperate to urinate.^[15]
4. (pronominal, colloquial) To laugh uncontrollably, often mearse de risa.^[15][20]

Word family

• mea
• meada
• meón
• escomearse
• meadero
• meado

Related words

• micción
• mingitorio
• Portuguese mijar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 8
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mear
4. ^ 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. mear
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. meiāre
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. meiare
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. mear
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mear
10. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
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. mear
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 522
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 563
14. ^ 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. 1124
15. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. mear
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mear
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 378
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. mear
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 688
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mear