moco

Forms

moco m (plural mocos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish moco, inherited from Latin muccus (“mucus, snot”), a popular variant of mūcus.^[1][2][3][4] The REW and García de Diego give the form with double ⟨cc⟩ as the source of the Romance words.^[5][6]

The same word is Portuguese monco, Catalan moc, Occitan moc, Italian moccio and Romanian muc.^[5][6] The Italian form was rebuilt from its plural.^[5] The Portuguese word owes its nasal vowel to the initial /m/.^[7][8] Spanish later took the classical form in learned words such as mucoso and mucosidad.^[2]

The Latin noun is recorded from Plautus on.^[9] De Vaan compares μύξα (múxa, “slime, mucus”) and μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow one's nose”) and sets up a noun “snot” from a root meaning “to brush off”, but finds it uncertain that the noun and the verb ēmungō (“to wipe one's nose”) belong together; the word may instead go with Indo-European words for “moist”.^[9] Wiktionary derives it from *mewk- (“slimy, slippery”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Moamín, a treatise on hunting birds of about 1250: when what the hawks bring up looks atal como mocos “just like mucus”, they are to be given a purge.^[10][11] The copy dates from the second half of the 13th century.^[10] Corominas dates the word only to about 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija in about 1495 has mocos de narizes for Latin mucus, with mocoso “snotty”.^[4][2] Covarrubias in 1611 explains mocoso by children's runny noses and records transferred senses: mocos de herrero for the slag that falls from red-hot iron under the hammer, and moco de candil for the snuff of a lamp wick in damp weather, taken as a sign of rain.^[12] Autoridades adds any sticky matter that forms in a liquid as it begins to go bad.^[13]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary records moco de pavo for the fleshy appendage over a turkey's beak and the ironic question ¿es moco de pavo?, said of something another person makes light of.^[14] The 1869 edition has llorar a moco tendido “to cry one's eyes out”.^[15] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 already has the nautical sense and a Chilean use for the catkins of the poplar and the walnut.^[16][17] In the Americas the word also means semen (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile) and a blunder (Argentina).^[18] In colloquial Spanish of Spain it can mean a hard knock or crash.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – first record, in the Moamín.^[10][11]
• c. 1400 – the first record in Corominas.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records mocos de narizes and mocoso.^[4][2]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records mocos de herrero and moco de candil.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records moco de pavo.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary records llorar a moco tendido.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin mūcus.^[21]
• 1917 – Alemany records the nautical sense.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. mucus, especially the thick fluid that runs from the nose; snot: Sónate, que tienes mocos.^[3][1]
2. Sticky, half-fluid matter that forms lumps in a liquid as the substances dissolved in it break down.^[3]
3. The glowing, swollen end of a burning wick.^[3]
4. The slag that falls from red-hot iron when it is hammered at the forge.^[3]
5. Wax that runs down a burning candle and sets along its side.^[3]
6. The fleshy, erectile appendage above a turkey's beak; also moco de pavo.^[3][19]
7. (nautical) Each of the small spars hanging from the head of the bowsprit that guide the ropes securing the jib boom.^[3]
8. (colloquial) A hard blow or crash.^[19]
9. (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile, vulgar) semen.^[18]

Word family

• mocoso
• mocarro
• moquero
• moquete
• moquillo
• desmocar
• moquear
• moquito
• soplamocos

Related words

• mucosidad
• mucoso
• Latin mūcus
• Portuguese monco

Usage notes

Llorar a moco tendido means to cry hard and long, and no ser moco de pavo to be no small matter.^[22][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. moco
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. moco
4. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. moco
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. monco
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. monco
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. moco
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. moco
12. ^ 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. 1140
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 582
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 578
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 514
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1150
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 564
18. ^ 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. moco
19. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. moco
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. moco
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 709
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. moco