pecho

Forms

pecho m (plural pechos)^[1] Old Spanish texts use the plural los pechos with a singular sense;^[2] Corominas found no certain example of the singular pecho before the late 15th century.^[3] DEMel records the form payto in charters of San Vicente de Oviedo dated 1028, and also pecto and plecho.^[2] Asturian has pechu and Aragonese peito.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pechos, inherited from Latin pectus (“breast, chest”).^[3][6][7][1] The Latin word was a neuter, so the Romance form continues its accusative, which was the same as the nominative and gave Old Spanish a form ending in -s; that form was felt as a plural, and the medieval texts use that plural form for one chest, until the singular pecho appears at the end of the Middle Ages.^[3] Catalan went the same way: its old singular pits came from the neuter, was later taken for a plural, and a new singular Catalan pit was drawn from it.^[8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese peito, Galician peito, Asturian pechu, Aragonese peito, Old French piz, Italian petto and Romanian piept.^[9][5][1] The French descendant pis lost the sense “chest” to poitrine and kept the rural sense “udder”.^[10] Spanish peto “breastplate” is a doublet borrowed from the Italian word, and pectoral is a learned borrowing of Latin pectorālis.^[6][1]

The Latin word goes back to *pektos.^[11][1] De Vaan thinks Old Irish ucht (“breast, chest”) a likely cognate, if it comes from an earlier *pektu-; he rejects a link with Tocharian, whose word belongs to another root, and finds Sanskrit पक्ष (pákṣa-, “wing”) too far in meaning.^[11] Wiktionary lists Proto-Indo-European *pekt-, *pek- and *peg- (“breast”) among the suggested roots and calls the further origin uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) already has the plural with the sense of one chest: „metiól' la lança por los pechos” “he thrust the lance into his chest”.^[12][3] In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) a stone helps a man who suffers a cough or another illness „en los pechos”, that is, in the chest.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the plural los pechos was said of the chest of men and women alike, of the breast of a bird and of the brisket of a sacrificed ram; the sense “a woman's breasts” is found in Juan Ruiz.^[3][13] In the slang of the underworld the word was turned round by metathesis into chepo, recorded in 1609.^[3]

Covarrubias in 1611 described the chest as the seat of courage and listed phrases built on that idea: hombre de pecho “a brave man”, tomar a pechos “to take something to heart”, descubrir el pecho “to tell one's secret”.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades noted that pecho was used for a woman's breast “for more decency” than teta, and the Academy's dictionaries kept that remark into the 19th century.^[15][16] The Academy's editions also gave the figurative senses “inner self”, “courage, constancy” and “strength of the voice for singing or speaking”, which are still in the DLE.^[16][7]

In 1884 the Academy separated the old word for a tribute, which it derived from Latin pactum, into an entry of its own.^[17] In the Americas pecho also names the breaststroke (Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay) and a cut of beef from the brisket (Central America, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay).^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses los pechos for the chest of a warrior.^[12][6]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (in a 14th-century copy): the saint strikes her breast in penance.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the word for the chest as the seat of a cough, and for the breast of a bird.^[13]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario has the singular pecho “part of the body”, Latin pectus.^[19]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, of a horse “abierto de los pechos”.^[20]
• 1609 – the slang form chepo is recorded.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists hombre de pecho, tomar a pechos and other phrases.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin pectus and makes the tribute a separate entry.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The part of the human body from the neck to the belly, whose cavity holds the heart and the lungs; the chest, thorax.^[7][1]
2. The outer front of that part of the body: Llevaba la camisa abierta hasta el pecho.^[7][1]
3. The front of the trunk of a four-footed animal, between the neck and the forelegs.^[7]
4. The respiratory system: Mi abuelo siempre estuvo delicado del pecho.^[7][21]
5. Each of a woman's breasts; also both breasts together, the bust.^[7][1]
6. (figurative) A person's inner self, the seat of the feelings.^[7][1]
7. (figurative) courage, strength and constancy.^[7][1]
8. The quality and staying power of the voice for singing or public speaking.^[7][21]
9. (rare) A steep slope; repecho.^[7]
10. (Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay) The breaststroke in swimming.^[18]
11. (Central America, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay) A cut of beef from the animal's chest, brisket.^[18]

Word family

• pechada
• pechera
• pechuga
• pechugón
• apechugar
• despechugar
• antepecho
• repecho
• pechiblanco
• pechicolorado
• pechirrojo

Related words

• apretar
• pectoral
• petral
• pretal
• pretil
• peto
• expectorar
• Latin pectus
• Portuguese peito
• Catalan pit

Usage notes

Set phrases include a lo hecho, pecho “what's done is done, face up to it”, tomar a pecho “to take to heart” and a pecho descubierto “without armour; openly”.^[1][22][7] Two other words are spelt pecho: the historical word for a tribute paid to the king or the lord of the land, which the Academy derives from Latin pactum “agreement” and others from the verb pechar “to pay tribute”, and pecho “bolt, lock”, used in León and Salamanca, from Vulgar Latin *pestulus.^{[23][24][25][26]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pecho
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, 454
4. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. pechu
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4879
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pecho
7. ^ 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. pecho
8. ^ 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. 6, 559
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pectus
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pis
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. pecho
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. pecho
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1201
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 177
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 543
17. ^ 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. 804
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pecho
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 395
20. ^ 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. pecho
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pecho
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 585
23. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. pecho
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pecho
25. ^ 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. pecho
26. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4973