morder

Forms

morder (first-person singular present muerdo, first-person singular preterite mordí, past participle mordido)^[1] The stressed o becomes ue in some persons and tenses (muerdo, muerde), as Autoridades already noted.^[2] Old Spanish texts also have the infinitive mordir and the old participle mordudo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish morder, inherited from Latin mordeō (“to bite”).^[4][5][6][1] The same verb is Portuguese morder, Catalan morder, Occitan morder, French mordre and Italian mordere.^[7][4] Corominas notes that it is common to the western Romance languages, but that modern Catalan, and partly the others except French, have replaced it by derivatives of Vulgar Latin *morsicare.^[4] The Catalan verb mossegar “to bite” continues the assimilated form *mossicare, from Latin morsus (“bitten”).^[5]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *mordeō.^[1] De Vaan explains it as an iterative present with o-grade, since biting is typically a repeated action, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂mord-éye- (“to crush, bite”), and compares Sanskrit forms meaning “to crush” and Ancient Greek ἀμέρδω (amérdō, “to deprive of”).^[8] Wiktionary instead starts from a root *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”) and gives English smart as a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Aqui mordian los Judios los culuebros “here the serpents bit the Jews”.^[9] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) rules on a dog that bites: Si el can a alguno mordiere “if the dog bites anyone”.^[9] Corominas's first record is Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo, where Adam and Eve mordieron ambos la devedada pera “both bit the forbidden pear”.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the literal sense, the transferred “to sting the tongue, as if biting” of a sharp stone, and “to defame”.^[10] Covarrubias (1611) records the phrase hazer a uno morder en el ajo “to make someone bite the garlic”, that is, to make him rage.^[11] Autoridades adds “to prick” of humours that irritate the touch or taste, and “to grip” of one thing holding another.^[2]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added “to wear away little by little, as a file does” and the figurative “to backbite, satirise”.^[12] The etching sense, of acid eating into a plate, appears in the 1869 edition, and Alemany (1917) adds a printing sense.^[13][14] Colloquial estar que muerde describes a person who is furious;^[6][15] Alcalá Venceslada quotes it from a novel of 1911.^[6][15]

In the Americas the verb means “to swindle” in the Antilles, Mexico and Venezuela, and “to take or demand a bribe” in Mexico and Central America, where the bribe is a mordida.^[16][17][18]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – mordian in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[9]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita rules on a dog that bites.^[9]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo, Corominas's first record.^[4][9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of a rabid dog's bite and of a stone that stings the tongue.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses it for “to defame”.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives morder o mordiscar with Latin mordeo.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records hazer a uno morder en el ajo.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “to wear away like a file” and “to backbite”.^[12]
• 1869 – the etching sense enters the Academy's dictionary.^[13]
• 1946 – Malaret records “to swindle” in the Antilles, Mexico and Venezuela.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bite: to sink one's teeth into something: El perro le mordió la pierna al cartero.^[6][1]
2. To sting or prick, as if biting.^[6]
3. Of a thing: to grip another, holding it fast.^[6][1]
4. To wear away gradually, taking off very small parts, as a file (lima) does.^[6][1]
5. (etching) Of aqua fortis (aguafuerte): to corrode the drawn part of a plate.^[6][1]
6. To backbite (murmurar) or satirise, harming someone's good name.^[6][1]
7. (colloquial) Of a person: to show extreme anger, especially in estar que muerde.^[6]
8. (printing) Of the frisket: to cover part of the forme, so that it does not print.^[6]
9. (Mexico, Central America) To demand or pay a bribe (soborno).^[18]
10. (Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) To swindle.^[18][16]

Word family

• mordedura
• mordiscar
• mordedor
• mordisco
• mordida

Related words

• mordaz
• mordaza
• remorder
• mordiente
• Latin mordeō
• Portuguese morder

Usage notes

The verb is irregular in the present: muerdo, muerdes, muerde, but mordemos.^[2][1] The phrase a muerde y sorbe describes eating food that is half solid and half liquid.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 606
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. morder
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, 143
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. morder
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. morder
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5682
8. ^ 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 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. morder
10. ^ a b c 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. morder
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. 1148
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 584
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 521
14. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1165
15. ^ a b Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 414
16. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 571
17. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 368
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. morder
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 382
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. morder