mucho

Forms

mucho m sg (feminine mucha, masculine plural muchos, feminine plural muchas)^[1] Old Spanish muito before mucho; the reduced muit and muy before a consonant and much before a vowel.^[2][3] Muncho was widespread, above all in the 16th century, and survives in popular speech; early Aragonese had muto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin multus (“much, many”).^[2][3][4][1] The oldest Spanish form was muito, which was shared with Portuguese and still appears in the Glosas Emilianenses.^[2][3] Bénaben sets out the chain from the Latin through intermediate forms with /w/ and /j/ to the Spanish forms.^[5]

In proclitic position the old form lost its final vowel: before a consonant the result muit could no longer palatalise, and soon became muy before adjectives; before a vowel it became much, common in the 13th century.^[2][3] Hence each form was sometimes used in the other's place, the full form before adjectives until the late 15th century and the short one before comparatives still in Juan de Valdés.^[2] Corominas explains the variant muncho by the spreading of the initial nasal, as in mancha and manzana.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese muito, Galician moito, Catalan molt, Old French mout, Italian molto and Romanian mult.^[6][7][1] The dialects have mi and muito in Asturias and the Pyrenees of Aragon.^[7] Despite the likeness, much is unrelated.^[1]

The Latin adjective continues Proto-Italic *moltos.^[8][1] De Vaan compares Oscan molto (“a fine”), Ancient Greek μάλα (mála, “very”) and Latvian milns (“very many”), and considers a PIE *m(o)l-to- (“good, big”), while noting that this root etymology is not very strong.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Emilianenses, of the 10th century, have the form muito.^[2][3] The Cantar de mio Cid uses mucho as an adjective (muchos de buenos omnes) and as an adverb, in the forms mucho, much and muy.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose mucho means “abundant” and, as an adverb, “much”, “for a long time” and also “very”.^[10] The adverbial use before adjectives was later taken over by muy.^[2] The form muncho was common among the conquerors and chroniclers of the Indies;^[11][12] Bernardo de Valbuena's Grandeza mexicana (1604) uses it more often than mucho.^[11][12]

Autoridades defines the adjective as “abundant or excessive” and the adverb as “excessively, abundantly”.^[13] The Academy recorded the familiar affirmative ¡mucho! “certainly” in 1869.^[14] Derivatives include muchedumbre, of the 13th century, and the old verb muchiguar “to multiply”; multitud is the learned doublet.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses have muito.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has mucho, much and muy.^[2][9]
• c. 1250 – the Setenario has the derivative muchiguar.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses mucho as an adjective and as an adverb.^[10]
• late 15th century – Rodrigo de Reinosa still writes mucho huerte for muy fuerte.^[2]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, as muncho, in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1604 – Valbuena's Grandeza mexicana prefers muncho.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin multus.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Determiner

1. much, many, a lot of; abundant or intense: Había muchas nubes.^[4][1]
2. Too much, more than is needed, often with para: Es mucha comida para dos.^[4]
3. Before comparatives, marking a large difference: muchos más coches.^[4]
4. (colloquial) Before a singular count noun, praising or implying a plural: Esa es mucha casa.^[4]

Pronoun

1. A lot, much; in the plural, many people: Muchos lo saben.^[4][1]

Adverb

1. A lot, greatly: Llovió mucho.^[4][17][1]
2. Before comparative adverbs, much, far: mucho mejor, mucho antes.^[17]
3. For a long time: Tardó mucho.^[17][1]
4. (colloquial, rare) Yes, certainly, as an answer.^[17]

Word family

• muchedumbre
• muchiguar
• muchísimo

Related words

• muy
• multitud
• múltiple
• multiplicar
• Latin multus
• Portuguese muito

Usage notes

Before an adjective or another adverb the form is muy, except before mayor, menor, mejor, peor, más, menos, antes and después.^[18] Set phrases include ni con mucho and ni mucho menos “not by a long way”, como mucho “at most” and por mucho que “however much”.^[4][19][1]

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 d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 178
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mucho
4. ^ 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. mucho
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. mucho
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. multus
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4482
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 358
10. ^ 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. mucho
11. ^ a b c Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 125
12. ^ a b c 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. mucho
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 622
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 525
15. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1152
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 723
17. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. mucho
18. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 463
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mucho