muerto

Forms

muerto (feminine muerta, masculine plural muertos, feminine plural muertas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mortuus (“dead”) (Vulgar Latin *mortus), the past participle of morior (“to die”).^[2][3][4][1] In Spanish it remains the participle of morir, and is also the adjective and the noun “dead person”.^[4][5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese morto, Galician morto, Catalan mort, French mort, Italian morto and Romanian mort.^[6][7]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic *mortwo- “dead” beside *morto-, from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥-uo- (“dead”), a formation of the root of “to die” that also gives Old Irish marb “dead”.^[8]

By an old suppletion common in Romance, the word also serves as the participle of matar “to kill”.^[2] Corominas finds it from Berceo's Duelo on, in general use in the classical language, and notes that Ibero-Romance and Languedoc share this use most of all.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas records muerto from the earliest Spanish texts, the Glosas Silenses of the late 10th century; the Cid uses it as the participle of morir.^[2][3][9] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has it in a dated text of 1201.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades gave three articles: the participle of morir (with velas muertas “extinguished candles”), the participle of matar, and the noun for a human corpse or a departed soul.^[11] The sense “extinguished, put out” gave the derivative amortar “to deaden, put out”.^[2] The Academy's 1884 dictionary called the use for matar familiar (He muerto una liebre, “I have killed a hare”) and listed slaked lime or plaster and a figurative “dull, faint”.^[12] Moliner records it as a popular use, and also the intensive muerto de miedo, muerto de hambre, muerto de risa.^[5] Recent colloquial senses are “worn out”, “tiresome job, burden” and, in cargar con el muerto, “blame, responsibility”.^[4][5] In some American countries the noun names, among other things, a speed bump (Costa Rica, Puerto Rico) and a buried fence post (Uruguay).^[13]

Timeline

• late 10th century – the Glosas Silenses.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses muerto as the participle of morir.^[9]
• 13th century – Berceo's Duelo uses muerto as the participle of matar.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin mortuus and extinctus.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades separates the participles of morir and matar and the noun “corpse”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. mortuus” and the slaked-lime sense.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dead, lifeless; of people, also as a noun: Encontraron muerto al perro en el jardín.^[4][1]
2. Of lime or plaster: slaked with water.^[4]
3. Of a colour: dull, faded, not lively.^[4]
4. (colloquial) Very tired, exhausted: Volví del viaje muerto.^[4][1]
5. (colloquial) Out of date, inactive.^[1]

Noun

1. A dead person, the deceased.^[1][5]
2. (card games) In tresillo and other games, the player whose turn it is to sit out but who still pays the stake; in bridge, the dummy.^[4][1]
3. (colloquial) A tiresome task or unwanted burden: Nos han dejado un buen muerto.^[4]
4. (colloquial) Responsibility, blame, as in cargar con el muerto.^[4]
5. (nautical) A mooring block (cuerpo muerto).^[4][1]

Word family

• amortar

Related words

• morir
• mortinato
• muerte
• mortaja
• mortal
• Latin mortuus

Usage notes

Muerto is the participle of both morir (ha muerto “he has died”) and, in the sense “killed”, of matar (lo han muerto), a use Moliner calls popular;^[2][5] matado is the regular participle of matar.^[2][5] Muerto de las agujas is a nautical buoy for compensating compasses.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 149
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. morir
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. muerto
5. ^ a b c d e f g Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. muerto
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5695
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4450
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 Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. muerto
10. ^ 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, p. s.v. muerto
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 511
12. ^ 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. 724
13. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. muerto
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 383