mojar

Forms

mojar (first-person singular present mojo, first-person singular preterite mojé, past participle mojado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *molliāre (“to soften”), a verb formed on Latin mollis (“soft”).^[2][3][1] Walde and Hofmann report the Vulgar Latin verb as recorded, and the Tironian notes have the compounds remolliare and demolliare.^[4] The verb is found in all the Romance languages except literary Italian: Romanian muia, French mouiller, Occitan molhar, Catalan mullar and Portuguese molhar.^[4][5][6] It mostly took the place of the classical mollīre (“to soften”).^[1]

The sense “to wet” grew out of “to soften”, because a thing that is soaked becomes soft.^[2][4] Bénaben and the DHLF tie the verb more narrowly to mollia (“the soft part of bread”), so that it first meant softening bread by dipping it.^[7][8] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *moldus and Proto-Indo-European *ml̥dus (“soft”), and is cognate with मृदु (mṛdú, “soft”) and blydd (“soft”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, known from a 13th-century copy),: preso una savana e moiola en agua e espandiola sobre su faz “he took a sheet and soaked it in water and spread it over his face”.^[10][11] Corominas gives Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre as the earliest texts, and the Breve diccionario dates the word 1220–1250.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the verb already had its main sense, to make something wet: the Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235) makes a ploughman pay if through his fault the straw gets wet in the loft.^[10] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of wetting the powder of a stone.^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the phrase mojar en la salsa, dipping food in a sauce, and explains the verb as softening a thing by wetting it.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) adds a figurative sense, to have a part in some business or affair.^[14] The Academy's 1869 edition added the colloquial mojar “to stab”.^[15] Present-day colloquial senses include celebrating something with a drink, wetting oneself, and the reflexive mojarse “to commit oneself in a dispute”.^[3][16] In Honduras, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Chile the verb means “to bribe”, and in Peru it means to score a goal in football.^[17][3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has moiola “he soaked it”, in a 13th-century copy.^[10][11]
• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo, the earliest record in a contemporary manuscript.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the verb of wetting powdered stone.^[12]
• 1495 – Nebrija records the derivatives mojadura, remojar and remojo.^[2][4]
• 1519 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, of loads of bread spoilt by getting wet.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the phrase mojar en la salsa.^[13]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the figurative sense “to take part in a business”.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the colloquial sense “to stab”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives an etymology, from Latin mollire.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wet or moisten something with water or another liquid; also reflexive, to get wet: Se mojó toda la ropa con la lluvia.^[3][1]
2. To dip food in a liquid or sauce: mojar el pan en el café.^[16][1]
3. (colloquial) To celebrate something by having a drink.^[3][16][1]
4. (colloquial) To urinate (orinar) on something, to wet oneself or the bed.^[3][16]
5. (colloquial) To stab someone.^[3]
6. (intransitive) To have a part in some business or affair.^[3][14]
7. (physics, of a liquid) To adhere to a solid, its molecules being more strongly attracted to the solid than to one another.^[3]
8. (reflexive, colloquial) To commit oneself openly to one side in a dispute.^[3][16]
9. (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Chile) To bribe someone.^[17][3]

Word family

• mojadura
• moje
• mojo
• remojar
• mojado
• mojicón
• remojo
• remojón

Related words

• muelle
• mullir
• Latin mollis
• Portuguese molhar

Usage notes

The Academy once derived mojar from the classical mollire; the DLE now gives the Vulgar Latin molliāre.^[19][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mojar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. mojar
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 181
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5646
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4410
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mouiller
9. ^ 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 d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. mojar
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mojar
12. ^ 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. mojar
13. ^ 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. 1142
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 589
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 516
16. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 711