nevar

Forms

nevar (first-person singular present nievo, first-person singular preterite nevé, past participle nevado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nevar, inherited from Vulgar Latin nivāre (“to snow”), a verb formed on the stem of Latin nix (“snow”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary sets up the form *nevāre, built on *nevem, and the BDELC posits that Vulgar Latin pronunciation with ⟨e⟩ to explain the diphthong of nieve.^[1][2] Classical Latin said ningit for “it snows”, which Nebrija and Covarrubias still give as the Latin equivalent.^[1][6][7] Du Cange finds the verb in the medieval glossary of Johannes de Janua.^[8]

The same verb is Portuguese nevar, Galician nevar, Asturian nevar, Catalan nevar and Occitan nevar.^[5][9][10] Italian has instead a derivative, Italian nevicare.^[5] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *sniks and Proto-Indo-European *snígʷʰs (“snow”), from the root *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”), the source of Ancient Greek νίψ (níps) and Old English snāw.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in the Moamín (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century), a book on the animals used in hunting: en los logares fríos e en los montes do nieva “in cold places and in the mountains where it snows”.^[11] The General Estoria of Alfonso X (c. 1275) has nevó “it snowed”; the BDELC dates the verb only about 1330.^[12][13][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept its sense “to snow” since Old Spanish.^[13][14] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds a metaphorical transitive sense, “to make white”, quoting Quevedo on women who se nievan de solimán “snow themselves with sublimate”, that is whiten their faces.^[14] Salvá notes in 1846 that this sense was also used intransitively, and the Academy's 1884 edition labels it figurative.^[15][16] An early American record is a text from Santo Domingo (1551) reporting that it snowed with as much blizzard (ventisca) as in Burgos.^[17]

The stressed forms take the diphthong (nievo, nieva), and Moliner conjugates it like acertar.^[1][18] In drug slang of Nicaragua and Chile it means to add cocaine to a marijuana cigarette.^[19]

Timeline

• 1250 – first record, in the Moamín.^[11]
• c. 1275 – the General Estoria has nevó.^[12][13]
• c. 1330 – the BDELC's date for the verb.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin ningo.^[6]
• 1551 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative sense “to make white”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal, intransitive) To snow: Anoche nevó en toda la sierra.^[3][1]
2. (transitive) To whiten something, by colouring it or scattering white things over it: Nevaron los pasteles con coco rallado.^[3][14][1]
3. (Nicaragua, Chile, drug slang) To add cocaine to a marijuana cigarette.^[19]

Word family

• nevada

Related words

• neviscar
• nieve
• nevera
• níveo
• Latin nix
• Portuguese nevar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nieve
3. ^ 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. nevar
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. nevar
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. nivāre
6. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. s.v. nevar
7. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1164
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. nivare
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *nivare
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. nevar
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nevar
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. nevar
13. ^ a b c 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. nevar
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 665
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 749
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. 738
17. ^ a b 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. nevar
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nevar
19. ^ 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. nevar