miedo

Forms

miedo m (plural miedos)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write myedo and mjedo;^[2][3][4] mieo is an old and popular form, and Asturian has mieu.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish miedo, inherited from Latin metus (“fear”).^[5][6][1][4] The same Latin word is Portuguese medo, Galician medo and Asturian mieu.^[4][7]

The Latin noun is reconstructed as Proto-Italic *metu-, but its further origin is unknown.^[8][1] Klingenschmitt has compared Old Irish moth (“astonishment”); de Vaan finds the comparison attractive in meaning but notes that it does not explain the sounds.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) uses the word several times, mostly in the phrase por miedo de “for fear of”: the door of the Cid's lodging was barred por miedo del rey Alfonso “for fear of King Alfonso”.^[5][9][3] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) is the first text whose copy is not later: por miedo de aquella debda “for fear of that debt”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to the Latin one: anxiety at a real or imagined danger, and the apprehension that something unwanted will happen;^[10][6] Alfonso X's Lapidario already speaks of grand miedo sin razon “great fear without reason”.^[10][6] Covarrubias (1611) quotes the definition of the Partidas, in which metus in Latin means fear of death, of bodily torture or of losing one's freedom, and adds that a promise made out of such fear is not valid.^[11] That legal notion survives as miedo insuperable, a fear that excuses a crime.^[6]

Autoridades records the phrase morirse de miedo and the proverb el miedo guarda la viña “fear guards the vineyard”, that fear of punishment keeps people from crime.^[12] In the Canaries los miedos are ghosts or imaginary creatures that frighten children, a sense taken over from Portuguese medo.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has por miedo de.^[5][9]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum: por miedo de Esau.^[3]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita.^[3]
• c. 1280 – first record of the derivative medroso.^[5]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario gives Latin metus and timor.^[14]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias quotes the legal definition of the Partidas.^[11]
• 1843 – first record of miedoso.^[5]
• 1863 – the Canarian sense “ghost” is recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. fear: anguish at a real or imagined risk or harm: Le da miedo la oscuridad.^[6][1]
2. Apprehension that something contrary to one's wishes may happen: Tenía miedo de llegar tarde.^[6]
3. (law) miedo insuperable: a fear that overrides judgement and drives a person to commit an offence, an exempting circumstance.^[6]
4. (Canary Islands, in the plural) Ghosts or imaginary beings that frighten children.^[13]
5. (Puerto Rico, prison slang) A prisoner released on parole after serving the minimum of a sentence.^[16]

Word family

• medroso
• medrana
• miedoso
• amedrentar

Related words

• meticuloso
• Latin metus
• Portuguese medo

Usage notes

Tener miedo and dar miedo are the usual constructions;^[6][17] más miedo que vergüenza is a colloquial phrase for great fear.^[6][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. miedo
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. miedo
4. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4324
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miedo
6. ^ 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. miedo
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2182
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 352
10. ^ 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. miedo
11. ^ 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. 1135
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. miedo
13. ^ a b c 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. miedo
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
15. ^ 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. miedo
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. miedo
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miedo