muy

Forms

muy^[1] Old Spanish wrote muy, mui, muyt and muit.^[2][3] Popular speech reduces it to mu, and Andalusian has mi.^[4][1][5]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish muito (“much”), shortened before adjectives and adverbs; the Old Spanish word is inherited from Latin multum (“much”), the adverbial neuter of multus (“much, many”).^[6][1][7] The DCECH explains that the Old Spanish word, common to Portuguese and early Castilian, lost its final vowel when it was used proclitically; before a consonant the cluster then no longer developed into the palatal of mucho, as happened in buitre from Latin vultur, and so muit before a consonant was soon reduced to the present form.^[3] Before a vowel the 13th century used much, and for a long time speakers used the full form for the short one and the other way round.^[3] The cases where the word seems to count as two syllables in Berceo and other early poets are, in Corominas's view, places where 14th-century scribes put the short form in place of the original full one.^[3]

Portuguese muito, Catalan molt and the proclitic Asturian mi have the same source.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has it before an adjective: sobr'ella una sávana de rançal e muy blanca “on it a sheet of fine linen, and very white”.^[9] The first record in a text without a later copy is the Cortes de León of 1208, where the king calls himself muy nobre Rey de Leon “most noble King of León”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old forms like mucho huerte were still used in the late 15th century, and muy mejor “much better” survived longer, into Juan de Valdés.^[3] The Academy's 1817 dictionary notes that in formal titles muy ilustre ranks below ilustrísimo, that muy señor mío opens letters, and that with a negation (no es muy prudente) it means “not very”, close to the opposite.^[10] Its 1884 edition defined it as the apocope of mucho used before adjectives, participles, adverbs and nouns used as adjectives (muy hombre).^[11]

Moliner notes that it is not used with the comparatives (mucho mayor), and that with the article and a word of reproach it forms exclamations (¡el muy bandido!).^[4] In Argentina and Uruguay it can stand alone in a reply, for a quality just mentioned.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – muy blanca in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[9]
• 1208 – muy nobre Rey de Leon in the Cortes de León.^[9]
• 13th century – much before a vowel (much alto) beside muy before a consonant.^[3]
• 14th century – copyists replace mucho with muy before adjectives.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija renders several Latin adverbs with mui mucho.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records muy ilustre and muy señor mío.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy calls it the apocope of mucho.^[11]

Meanings

Adverb

1. very: before adjectives, adverbs and some prepositional phrases, a high degree of the quality: Este café está muy caliente.^[6][1]
2. (Argentina, Uruguay) Alone, for a high degree of a quality just mentioned: —¿Es cara la entrada? —Muy.^[6]
3. With the article, before a word of reproach or ironic praise, in exclamations: ¡El muy tramposo!^[4]

Related words

• mucho
• Latin multum
• Portuguese muito

Usage notes

It is not used before comparatives, which take mucho (mucho mejor).^[4] In Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay muy muy describes someone who acts as if above the others, and ni muy muy ni tan tan means “just right, without excess” in many countries.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. muy
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 178
4. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. muy
5. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 401
6. ^ a b c d 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. muy
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mucho
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. muy
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. muy
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 592
11. ^ 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. 729
12. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. muy
13. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. muy