muela

Forms

muela f (plural muelas)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write muella and muel.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mola (“millstone”), through Old Spanish muela (“millstone”).^[3][4][1][5] The Latin word is a derivative of molō (“to grind”), the source of moler.^[6][3] The senses “molar tooth” and “flat-topped hill” came by comparison with the millstone.^[3][5] Latin already used the plural for the grinding teeth in the Vulgate.^[7]

The same word is Portuguese mó, Galician moa, Asturian muela, Catalan mola, Occitan mòla, French meule, Italian mola and Romanian moară.^[8][1]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from *molh₂-h₂- (“mill, millstone”), a noun of the root *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”), which also gave Ancient Greek μύλη (múlē, “handmill”), Lithuanian málti (“to grind”) and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽 (malan, “to grind”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1065, and the DEMel finds the plural muelas that year in the cartulary of San Pedro de Cardeña.^[3][2] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) speaks of the son of the maidservant que muele a la muela, “who grinds at the millstone”.^[9] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) fines anyone who knowingly breaks a mill wheel, a millstone or a channel.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “flat-topped hill” is recorded about 1250, and “molar tooth” in 1335.^[3][8] The Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy) compares a sharp wit to iron que aguzan a la muela, “that they sharpen on the grindstone”.^[9] In the Estoria de España Saint Quirinus is thrown into a river with a muela de braço, a hand millstone, tied to his neck.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 has the barber's muela on which tools are sharpened.^[11]

Autoridades (1734) lists the millstone, the grindstone and a ring formed by something, as when cows form a muela around their calves to protect them.^[12] The Academy's 1817 edition adds the amount of water that drives a mill, a hill, the back teeth and the muela de dados, a set of nine pairs of dice.^[13] Salvá in 1846 also records the obsolete senses “crowd” and “squadron, army”.^[14] Today the tooth is the main sense, and muela rather than diente is used for the teeth in general, as in dolor de muelas.^[15][5]

In the Americas it has many figurative senses: a crab's claw in Cuba and Venezuela, a long and tedious conversation in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, a lie in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, a useless or unskilled person in Central America.^[16] Earlier dictionaries record “stingy” in Honduras and “cheat” in Cuba and Santo Domingo.^[17]

Timeline

• 1065 – first record, the plural muelas in the cartulary of Cardeña.^[3][2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy, uses it for a millstone.^[9]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio uses it for a grindstone.^[9]
• c. 1250 – first record of the sense “flat-topped hill”.^[3]
• c. 1300 – first record of the derivative amolar “to sharpen”.^[3]
• 1335 – first record of the sense “molar tooth”.^[3]
• 1513 – in Puerto Rico, among a barber's tools for pulling teeth.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the barber's grindstone.^[11]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines the millstone, the grindstone and the ring.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the tooth, the hill and the muela de dados.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. mola”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A molar, one of the back teeth used for grinding food: Mañana me sacan una muela.^[4][1]
2. (informal, usually plural) A tooth in general.^[1][15]
3. A millstone, the turning upper stone of a mill.^[4][1]
4. A grindstone, a disc of sandstone turned to sharpen tools.^[4][1]
5. A hill with steep sides and a flat top, a mesa.^[4]
6. An artificial mound.^[4]
7. The almorta, grass pea.^[4]
8. The amount of water that drives a mill wheel; a unit for the flow in irrigation channels, in Aragon about 260 litres a second.^[4][15]
9. A ring or corro.^[4]
10. (Cuba, Venezuela) The claw of a crab or other arthropod.^[4][16]
11. (Cuba, Dominican Republic) A long, boring conversation.^[16][1]
12. (Central America) A useless, lazy or clumsy person.^[4][16]

Word family

• sacamuelas
• amolar

Related words

• molar
• moler
• molino
• Latin mola
• French meule

Usage notes

Muela del juicio or muela cordal is a wisdom tooth.^[4][1] The proverb al que le duele la muela, que se la saque is used to keep out of other people's business.^[13]

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 Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. muela
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. moler
4. ^ 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. muela
5. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. muela
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 469
9. ^ 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. muela
10. ^ 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. muela
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. 1143
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 624
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 588
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 737
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. muela
16. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. muela
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 577
18. ^ 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. muela
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 724