monstruo

Forms

monstruo m (plural monstruos)^[1] Older forms are mostro (Libro de Alexandre, and still in Cervantes, Lope and Vélez de Guevara), mostruo (Alonso de Palencia, 1490) and monstro (Lope, Covarrubias).^[2] Oudin already preferred monstruo, and Autoridades made it the standard form.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin monstruum, an alteration of Latin monstrum (“portent, prodigy; monster”).^[2][3][4] Corominas explains the ⟨u⟩ by the influence of monstruōsus (“monstrous”), at a time when Latin wavered between forms such as mortuus (“dead”) and mortus.^[2] The DLE and García de Diego also derive it from the Latin noun, with the ⟨u⟩ of monstruoso.^[5][6] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing.^[1]

The Latin noun was a word of religion: a prodigy that warned of the will of the gods, from moneō (“to warn, remind”).^[3][7][8] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Italic *monestrom, formed from the verb with the instrument suffix -trum.^[1] De Vaan notes that the regular outcome would have lost the ⟨n⟩, which was brought back from the verb.^[9] The verb goes back to *moneje- and Proto-Indo-European *mon-eie- (“to make think of, remind”), a causative related to the root of mente.^[9][4] From it Latin formed mōnstrō (“to point out, show”), whence mostrar.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is mostro in the Libro de Alexandre, of about 1250.^[2][3] The DEMel lists the same text.^[10] A translation of Jacques de Vitry's history of Jerusalem, of the mid-14th century, describes an animal quasi mostruo de espantable bramido “like a monster with a fearful roar”.^[11] In Enrique de Villena's Eneida of 1427–1428 (in a copy of 1442), a maravilloso monstro is a portent: blood drips from a branch torn from the ground.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was used for frightful creatures and visions, and for a person who lived against nature.^[11] In 1548 a text from Santo Domingo speaks of monstruos humanos, people born with deformities.^[12] Cervantes used both monstruos and mostruos, and the insult monstruo de naturaleza.^[13] For Calderón the word could mean “hybrid”.^[2]

Autoridades defined it as a birth or product against the regular order of nature, and by extension anything extremely large or out of the ordinary.^[14] The Academy added a very ugly person or thing in 1817 and a very cruel, wicked person in 1884.^[15][16] By 2001 it also had the colloquial sense of a person far above the common run in some activity, and the nonsense verses with which a composer shows a librettist where the stresses must fall.^[17] Moliner records its use in apposition with the sense “splendid”.^[18] In Chile el monstruo is the audience of the Viña del Mar song festival.^[19] In the Dominican Republic monstruo, feminine monstrua, is a friendly form of address.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – mostro in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][3]
• mid-14th century – mostruo for a strange animal.^[11]
• 1427–1428 – Villena's maravilloso monstro, a portent (in a copy of 1442).^[11]
• 1438 – the derivative monstruoso.^[3]
• 1490 – mostruo in Alonso de Palencia.^[2]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1607 – first record of the form monstruo.^[3]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades fixes the form monstruo.^[2][14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “a very cruel and wicked person”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A being with marked anomalies or departures from its species.^[5]
2. A fantastic creature that causes terror; a monster: En el cuento, un monstruo vivía bajo el puente.^[5][1]
3. Something exceedingly large or extraordinary of its kind.^[5]
4. A very ugly person or thing.^[5]
5. A very cruel and wicked person.^[5][1]
6. (colloquial) A person who far exceeds the common abilities in some activity: Ese chico es un monstruo del ajedrez.^[5][17]
7. (music) A set of nonsense lines that the composer writes to show the librettist where the stresses of the sung verses must go.^[5]
8. (Chile) The audience of the Viña del Mar song festival.^[19]

Word family

• monstruoso
• monstruosidad

Related words

• mostrar
• amonestar
• Latin monstrum

Usage notes

Monstruo sagrado is a colloquial name for a revered, untouchable figure, like vaca sagrada.^[5] Wiktionary records the colloquial forms mounstro, monstro, mostro and moustro.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 164
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. monstruo
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 471
5. ^ 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. monstruo
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. monstrum
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. monstruo
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. monstruo
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. monstruo
12. ^ a b 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. monstro
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 761
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 598
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 582
16. ^ 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. 715
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. monstruo
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. monstruo
19. ^ 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. monstruo
20. ^ 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. monstruo