pepita

pepita¹ pip (disease of poultry)

Pronunciation

• /peˈpita/, [peˈpi.t̪a]^[1]

Forms

pepita f (plural pepitas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the disease of hens is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pippīta, an altered form of Latin pituīta (“mucus, phlegm; pip of birds”).^[2][3][4] Corominas explains the change: the Latin word was often pronounced with a consonantal /w/, and after the voiceless /t/ this became /p/; this gave the type pipita, found in the glosses, and the type *pippīta, whose double /pp/ may come from assimilation of the lost first /t/; the Spanish ending was influenced by the diminutive suffix -ito.^[3] A form closer to the etymon, petita, occurs in a treatise on the diseases of hawks of the late 13th century.^[3]

From *pippīta come French pépie, Occitan pepida and Catalan pepida; from the type with a single /p/, Italian pipita, Sardinian pibida, Portuguese pevide and Asturian pebida.^[3][5][6] The Latin noun meant resin or gum oozing from trees, then mucus and catarrh; its learned doublet is pituita, recorded from the third quarter of the 16th century.^[4][7][3] De Vaan considers the further origin of the Latin word unknown: it may belong with pīnus (“pine”) as a “resin-like substance”, but this is uncertain.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juan Ruiz uses it twice in the Libro de buen amor (1330–1343, in a copy of about 1415): in the proverb escarva la gallina e falla su pepita “the hen scratches and finds her pip”, and as a curse wishing a deadly illness on a watchful mother, ¡A la vieja pepita!^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The Spanish translation of Palladius of 1380–1385 describes it as a disease of the hen's tongue, a white skin covering its tip.^[9] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 glosses Latin pituita as la pepita de gallina.^[10] Covarrubias explains that the pip makes the hen hoarse and stops her clucking, so that no tener pepita means to speak very freely, and despepitarse to talk without restraint.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a small tumour on the tongue that keeps hens from clucking, and quotes Quevedo's joke that in pampered hens the pip is a great harm, as in women of today it is to be despepitadas “unrestrained in speech”.^[12] The Academy recorded the phrase no tener pepita en la lengua in 1817.^[13] Today the DLE labels the disease a veterinary term.^[2]

Timeline

• late 13th century – the form petita in a treatise on the diseases of hawks.^[3]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz, Libro de buen amor.^[3][4]
• 1380–1385 – the Libro de Palladio describes the disease of the hen's tongue.^[9]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin pituita with pepita de gallina.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains no tener pepita and despepitarse.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy records no tener pepita en la lengua.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (veterinary) pip: a small tumour that forms on the tongue of hens and stops them clucking.^[2][14]

Word family

• despepitarse

pepita² seed; nugget

Pronunciation

• /peˈpita/, [peˈpi.t̪a]^[1]

Forms

pepita f (plural pepitas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the seed of fruits is of disputed origin.^[2] Corominas holds that it is the same word as the name of the hens' disease, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pippīta, an alteration of pituīta (“mucus”), first applied to the thick juice in which the seeds of a melon lie and then to the seeds themselves.^[3][4] His best evidence is that pepida means the pip of fruit in Béarn and the fruit of the hawthorn in Aran, with the same ⟨d⟩ as the disease name.^[3] Extremaduran peba “seed” has the same /b/ as Portuguese pevide, which names both the disease and a fruit seed, and Galician pibida means the seed of certain fruits.^[3] Bénaben follows the same view.^[7] Portuguese pepita in the sense “nugget” is borrowed from Spanish.^[15]

The usual older explanation linked the word with Latin pepō (“a kind of melon”) and Spanish pepino: Covarrubias derived it from the name of the cucumber, and the Academy gave the Latin melon word as the etymon from 1884.^[11][16] Wiktionary still calls the origin unknown, but probably this Latin word.^[1] Corominas rejects this: the suffix would be hard to explain, and Italian pippolo shows a separate word.^[3] Meyer-Lübke finds the Spanish word difficult in both sound and meaning, as he does the Tuscan word for a kernel and French pépin.^[5] Corominas also rejects Bloch and Wartburg's expressive formation, with ⟨p…p⟩ suggesting smallness, and García de Diego's etymon Vulgar Latin *pipa, which he calls arbitrary.^[3][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's oldest record of the fruit sense is in Alfonso de Palencia (1490), who notes that apple pips are hard to digest.^[3] The CDH has earlier medical hits: Estéfano de Sevilla's Visita y consejo de médicos (before 1400) prescribes quinces boiled and peeled & mondados de las cortezas de fuera & de las pepitas de dentro “stripped of the outer rinds and the pips inside”.^[9] In 1411–1412 Saint Vincent Ferrer compares hell, in the heart of the earth, to the pips in the middle of an apple.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Percyvall in 1591 gave both “a kernel of fruit” and “the pip in a hen”.^[18] The sense “small lump of native gold” grew out of the seed sense, and Corominas finds it in José de Acosta about 1590.^[3] Terreros recorded it as a word of Chile for a piece of pure metal found in mines, and the Academy added the nugget of pure native gold in 1817, then also of iron and other metals in 1869.^[19][13][20] The Diccionario de Autoridades separated these seeds from others as flat and longer.^[12]

In the Americas a back-formed pepa “fruit seed” is common, and pipa elsewhere, and pepita and pipita are also popular words for the clitoris in Spain.^[3] In Mexico pepita by itself means a pumpkin seed eaten toasted and salted, and in Guatemala and Panama the Adam's apple.^[21][22] In Puerto Rico it is the stone of any fruit, even the large one of the avocado.^[23]

Timeline

• before 1400 – Estéfano de Sevilla speaks of the pips of quinces.^[9]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia, Corominas's first record of the fruit sense.^[3]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[24]
• c. 1590 – José de Acosta uses the word for a small lump of native gold.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from pepino.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the gold nugget.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives Latin pepo as the etymon.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pip or seed of certain fruits, such as the melon, pear or apple: Quítale las pepitas a la sandía.^[2][1]
2. A nugget: a small rounded lump of gold or another native metal, usually found in alluvial ground: Encontraron una pepita en el arroyo..^[2][1]
3. (Mexico) A pumpkin seed, eaten toasted and salted.^[21]
4. (Guatemala, Panama) The Adam's apple.^[22]

Word family

• despepitar
• pepitoso