mezclar

Forms

mezclar (first-person singular present mezclo, first-person singular preterite mezclé, past participle mezclado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote mesclar, as in Berceo, the Libro de Apolonio and Juan Manuel.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish mesclar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *misculare.^[2][4][3][1] The Vulgar Latin verb is derived from misceō (“to mix”) and lives on in all the western Romance languages.^[2] Corominas suggests it may be a reshaping of Late Latin miscuere, also spelled ⟨miscuare⟩, made from the perfect miscuī.^[2] The same verb is Portuguese mesclar, Catalan mesclar, Occitan mesclar, French mêler and Italian mischiare.^[5][6]

The Spanish /skl/ is not the expected outcome: macho from masculus shows the regular change to /tʃ/.^[2][1] The REW took the Spanish and Portuguese verbs from Catalan, but Corominas rejects this and Wiktionary calls it very unlikely.^[5][2][1] Corominas suggests either a learned pronunciation that won, as in claro and clavo, or a late loss of the ⟨u⟩ of the Latin word.^[2] The inherited outcome of the simple Latin verb is mecer, once “to stir, shake”.^[2]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *mi(k)skō, from Proto-Indo-European *miḱ-sḱé-, a present of *meyḱ- (“to mix”).^[1][7] Its cognates include μίσγω (mísgō), Sanskrit मिश्र (miśrá, “mixed”), Lithuanian maišýti and Old High German miscen.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date it from the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[2][4] In the Cid's battle the Moors “fizieron dos azes de pendones mezclados” “formed two lines of mingled banners”.^[8] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250), without a later copy, punishes the goldsmith who mixes anything into the gold or silver he is given.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used the verb for “to sow discord, slander”, as in the Calila and in Alfonso X's Estoria de España, where a man “fue mal mezclado con los romanos” “was slandered before the Romans”.^[2][9] Alfonso's prose already has the senses “to mix”, “to mingle with others” and “to intermarry”.^[9] Covarrubias (1611) defined it as joining different things and noted mezclarse los linajes.^[10] The Academy marked the sense “to set people at odds by gossip” as obsolete in 1817.^[11]

The reflexive mezclarse en “to meddle in” entered the Academy's dictionary in 1843.^[12] Baralt (1855) objected to French-style uses such as mezclar sus lágrimas and to the construction with de instead of con.^[13] Today the verb is also used of mixing sound recordings.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has pendones mezclados.^[2][8]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the noun mezcla.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of mixing powders with water.^[9]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España has the sense “to slander”.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin misceo and commisceo; he also records entremezclar.^[15][4]
• 1529 – the first record in the Americas, in a text from Mexico.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records mezclarse los linajes.^[10]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary has mezclarse en “to meddle”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix, blend or combine one thing with another; also reflexive: Mezcla la harina con la leche poco a poco.^[3][1]
2. To jumble, put out of order.^[3]
3. To involve someone in something that is not their affair; reflexive, to meddle.^[3][17]
4. (obsolete) To set people at odds with gossip and tales.^[3][11]
5. (reflexive) Of a person, to mingle with others;^[3][1] (reflexive) of a thing, to enter into another.^[3][1]
6. (reflexive, rare) Of a family or lineage, to intermarry with another.^[3]

Word family

• mezcla
• mezclado
• entremezclar
• intermezclar
• mezclable
• mezclilla
• mezclador

Related words

• mecer
• mestizo
• mixto
• mixtura
• misceláneo
• mezcolanza
• Latin misceō
• Catalan mesclar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 9
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. mezclar
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mezclar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. misculare
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. misculare
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, p. s.v. misceo
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. mezclar
9. ^ a b c d 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. mezclar
10. ^ 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. 1134
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 572
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 475
13. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 436
14. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. mezclar
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
16. ^ 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. mezclar
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mezclar