menudo

Forms

menudo (feminine menuda, masculine plural menudos, feminine plural menudas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote the adverbial phrase as one word, amenudo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin minūtus (“small, little”), the past participle of minuō (“to lessen”).^[3][4][1][5] The same word is Portuguese miúdo, Galician miúdo, Catalan menut, Occitan menut, French menu, Italian minuto and Romanian mărunt.^[6][7] Its learned doublet is minuto, taken from Latin about 1440.^[3][1]

In Latin the adjective meant “small in size”, and also “of little importance, humble”.^[5][8] The DHLF notes that it tended to replace parvus (“small”) in popular Latin.^[9] Vox traces the verb to minus (“less”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Breve diccionario dates the adjective and the phrase a menudo to 1220–1250.^[3] DEMel lists menudas in a fuero of 1146 and the phrase pueblo menudo “common people” in Navarrese texts, and the Old Spanish Textual Archive has it from 1201.^[2][11] In Alfonso X's Lapidario a precious stone is found only menuda, in small grains, in the sand of the sea and rivers.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From “small” the word early took the senses “humble, common” (la yente menuda in Alfonso X) and “minor, lesser” (reyes menudos).^[12] The phrase a menudo “often” starts from the idea of short intervals between repeated events.^[3][13] Covarrubias gives the sense “stingy” for a man who looks at trifles, and the use of menudo for the belly, feet and head of a sheep and of menudos for copper coins.^[14] Autoridades recorded “small and slight of body”, “of no importance” and the offal of slaughtered animals.^[15]

Today the word is also an intensifier before a noun, often ironic, so that menudo lío means “a fine mess”.^[4][16] In Mexico menudo is a tripe stew with chili, and in Andalusia menudo is tripe.^[17][18][1] In the Caribbean and Colombia it means small change.^[17][19]

Timeline

• 1146 – menudas in a fuero listed by DEMel.^[2]
• 1201 – the earliest text in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – the adjective and a menudo in the Breve diccionario.^[3]
• 1259 – Alfonso X's astrological prose speaks of la yente menuda “the common folk”.^[12]
• 1490 – menudillos “giblets”.^[3]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records menudo for offal and menudos for copper coins.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades derives it from Latin minutus.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. small, tiny: lluvia menuda.^[4][1]
2. Of a person: small and slender.^[4]
3. Of little or no importance.^[4][1]
4. Common, plebeian.^[4]
5. meticulous, examining things in great detail.^[4]
6. (colloquial, before a noun) Used for emphasis, often ironic: what a…!: ¡Menudo día llevamos!^[4][1]
7. Of money: in small coins; also as a noun, small change.^[4][17]
8. Of coal: broken into pieces of no more than twelve millimetres.^[4]
9. (obsolete) Mean, stingy.^[4]

Noun

1. (Mexico) A stew of beef tripe with tomato and chili.^[4][17] (Andalusia) Tripe.^[1][18]
2. (in the plural) The belly, feet and blood of slaughtered animals; the giblets of birds.^[4]
3. (historical, in the plural) The tithe on lesser produce such as vegetables, fruit, honey and wax.^[4]

Word family

• menudear
• menudencia
• desmenuzar
• menudillo

Related words

• minuto
• minucia
• Latin minūtus
• Portuguese miúdo

Usage notes

A menudo means “often”.^[4] Por menudo and a la menuda mean “in detail” and “by retail”.^[4][21] English borrowed the Mexican dish as menudo.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. menudo
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. menudo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. menudo
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. minūtus
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4369
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. minutus
8. ^ 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. 434
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. menu
10. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. menudo
11. ^ 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, p. s.v. menudo
12. ^ a b c 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. menudo
13. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 457
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. 1130
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 547
16. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. menudo
17. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. menudo
18. ^ a b Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 399
19. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. menudo
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. menudo
21. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1122