naso

Forms

naso m (plural nasos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nāsus (“nose”).^[2][1][3][4] The same Latin word is Portuguese naso, Catalan nas, Occitan nas, French nez, Italian naso and Romanian nas, and Aragonese of Ribagorza also has Aragonese naso.^[4][3][5] The Diccionario de Autoridades derived the Spanish word instead from the Latin surname Naso, which it glossed “one with a big nose”.^[6]

The Latin noun goes back through Proto-Italic *nāssos to Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s (“nose”).^[1]

García de Diego places under the same Latin word the dialect adjective nacho “snub-nosed” of Salamanca, Galicia and Asturias, and reports Corominas's view that it continues a diminutive Vulgar Latin *nasculus or is a diminutive reshaping of naso.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 1500 the CDH has the form mostly as the surname of Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso, in Mena, Santillana and others.^[7] The first clear record of the common noun is in the Sumario de la medicina of Francisco López de Villalobos (1498), on bleeding that tears las venas del naso “the veins of the nose”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades describes the word as burlesque and jocular, with quotations from Barbadillo and Jacinto Polo, and Terreros cites it from Cervantes's Entremés del vizcaíno fingido.^[6][8] From 1869 the Academy defined it as “a big nose”, labelled colloquial and jocular in 1884.^[9][10] The DLE now gives it as a jocular, little-used word for the nose.^[2]

In the Río de la Plata naso is a lunfardo word for the nose; a 1973 Argentine study counts it among lunfardo's direct transplants.^[11]

Timeline

• 1498 – López de Villalobos uses naso for the nose in his Sumario de la medicina.^[7]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades calls it a burlesque, jocular word.^[6]
• 1846 – Salvá labels it jocular.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy defines it as “a big nose”.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin nasus.^[10]
• 1973 – recorded as a lunfardo word in Argentina.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (jocular, rare) The nose, especially a big one: ¡Menudo naso tiene el portero!^[2][13][1]
2. (Río de la Plata, slang) The nose.^[11]

Related words

• nariz
• nasal
• Latin nāsus
• Italian naso
• Catalan nas

Usage notes

In Puerto Rico naso is also a fish trap or net, the same as standard nasa.^{[14][15][16][17]} In rural Puerto Rico it also means the buttocks.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. naso
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4554
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. nāsus
5. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 881
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 649
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. naso
8. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 649
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 532
10. ^ 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. 733
11. ^ 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. naso
12. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 745
13. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. naso
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 584
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 261
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. naso
17. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. naso