mosto

Forms

mosto m (plural mostos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish mosto, inherited from Latin mustum (“unfermented grape juice”), the noun use of the neuter of mustus (“fresh, young”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese mosto, Galician mosto, Catalan most, French moût, Italian mosto and Romanian must.^[2][6][7]

Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva derive the adjective from Proto-Indo-European *mus- (“damp”), which would give an original sense “wet”.^[1][8] De Vaan names only a derivation from a root “to be cheerful”, which he finds semantically gratuitous, and the DHLF calls the adjective a rustic word without a clear etymology.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated manuscript with the word is the Fuero de Alcalá de Henares of 1223.^[11] In the CDH's text of the Fuero de Alcalá (dated c. 1235 there), a man without vineyards who is said to have stolen grapes must pay for them if they are found in a man's house o mosto fecho “or must already made” and he cannot show where he got them.^[12] Corominas dates the word to the earliest Spanish texts, Berceo among them.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word, in its Latin sense of grape juice before fermentation, has been in general use at all periods.^[2][4] Autoridades in 1734 added that it was also used for wine, and recorded mosto agustín, a paste of must cooked with flour and spices, made mainly in La Mancha.^[13] The derivative mostaza “mustard”, from about 1400, first named sauces made with ground mustard seed and must, which softened its sharpness, and only later the plant itself.^[2][3]

In the Caribbean and Mexico mosto is the foul-smelling residue of sugarcane juice in sugar-making.^[4][14][15] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 records Cuban mosto muerto and mosto vivo for mixtures of water and cane honey in the still.^[16] In Bolivia and Paraguay it is sugarcane juice, and in Chile it means wine.^[14] In brewing it also names wort.^[1]

Timeline

• 1223 – the Fuero de Alcalá de Henares.^[11]
• 1250 – the Moamín prescribes mosto cocho “boiled must” of quinces in a remedy.^[17][12]
• c. 1400 – first record of the derivative mostaza.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin mustum and gleucos.^[18]
• 1551 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as wine pressed in the winepress and not yet fermented.^[20]
• 1734 – Autoridades records mosto agustín.^[13]
• 1917 – Alemany records Cuban mosto muerto and mosto vivo.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. must: the juice pressed from grapes (uva) before it ferments into wine (vino).^[4][1]
2. (Caribbean, Mexico) The foul-smelling residue of sugarcane juice (caña de azúcar) in sugar-making.^[4][14]
3. (brewing) wort.^[1]
4. (Bolivia, Paraguay) Sugarcane juice.^[14]
5. (Chile) Wine.^[14]

Word family

• mostaza
• remosto
• remostar
• mostillo
• enmostar
• trasmosto

Related words

• mostajo
• Latin mustum
• Portuguese mosto
• French moût

Usage notes

The phrase desliar el mosto means to separate the must from its lees.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mosto
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. mosto
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5783
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 616
14. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
15. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 383
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
20. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1150