opaco

Forms

opaco (feminine opaca, masculine plural opacos, feminine plural opacas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin opācus (“shady, covered in shade; dark”).^[2][3][4] Corominas describes it as a Latinism of the culterano poets, an ornamental synonym of sombrío; its new sense “not transparent”, however, expressed a useful idea, and in that sense the word took root.^[2]

The popular outcome of the Latin word survives only in Aragonese: Borao's obaga (“a spot that gets little sun”), and, all along the Pyrenees, bago and paco “shady side of a valley”.^[2][5] The forms pacín or pacino “shady” of the Sobrarbe and Upper Aragon points to a derivative Vulgar Latin *opacinus.^[2] Elsewhere the same word is Catalan obac, Occitan ubac and Italian opaco, with Italian bacio “shady” from a derivative.^[6][5][7]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unclear.^[8][1] It has long been compared with Sanskrit and Old Church Slavonic words for “turned away, backwards”, but de Vaan notes that their reconstruction would give a Latin form *apōcus, and finds the metathesis that Klingenschmitt proposes unlikely.^[8] He suggests instead, as no more than a theoretical possibility, Proto-Italic *op-wākos (“situated towards the empty side”), with the root of vacuus and vānus.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the HSMS archive is the Castilian Libro de proprietatibus rerum printed at Toulouse in 1494.^[9] Alonso de Palencia had it in 1490 only as a Latin word, though with a Castilian ending.^[2][10] The DCECH's first records are Fernández de Villegas in 1515 and Alvar Gómez around 1525, where it is a poetic word for “shady, dark”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the word is still missing from Covarrubias, Oudin, and the Quijote.^[2] Góngora uses it in 1613.^[2] The sense “letting no light through” is found in Saavedra Fajardo in 1640, and perhaps already in Góngora.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives three senses: not letting light pass, quoting Saavedra; dark or shady, quoting Villamediana; and figuratively sad and melancholy.^[11] In the Americas a text from New Granada of 1588 speaks of árboles opacos “shady trees”, and one from Potosí of 1636 divides precious stones into transparent and opaque.^[12]

Terreros calls the moon an opaque body, and Domínguez in 1846 applies the word to planets without light of their own and to things that do not shine.^[13][14] Moliner extends the sense “dull” to people and events.^[15] The DLE now adds “hard to understand”, and, of a company, its managers or its dealings, “not transparent”.^[4] A Latin charter of 1063 already has opaco for a shady slope, the sense of the popular Aragonese word.^[2]

Timeline

• 1063 – opaco “shady place” in a charter, in the sense of the Aragonese popular word.^[2]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia gives opaco only as a Latin word.^[2][10]
• 1494 – the Castilian Libro de proprietatibus rerum, printed at Toulouse.^[9]
• 1515 – Fernández de Villegas, the DCECH's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1570 – first record of opacidad.^[3]
• 1588 – first record in the Americas, in New Granada.^[12]
• 1613 – Góngora uses the word.^[2]
• 1640 – Saavedra Fajardo uses it for “not transparent”.^[2][11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “not transparent”, “dark” and “sad”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. opaque: not letting light through, as opposed to diáfano: Pusieron cortinas opacas en el dormitorio.^[4][15][1]
2. Dark, shady.^[4][11]
3. Sad and melancholy.^[4][11]
4. Not clear; hard to understand: un discurso opaco.^[4][17]
5. Of a company, its managers or its dealings: not transparent.^[4]
6. Lacking shine; also of a person or an event: dull, undistinguished.^[15][14]

Word family

• opacidad
• opacar

Related words

• Latin opācus
• Catalan obac
• Aragonese paco

Usage notes

Set phrases include voz opaca and the medical córnea opaca.^[4][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 285
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. opaco
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. opaco
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4692
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6069
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. obac
8. ^ a b c 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 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. opaco
10. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. opaco
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 40
12. ^ 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. opaco
13. ^ 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, 710
14. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1290
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. opaco
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. 761
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. opaco
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1225