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picar

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word picar

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin *picco
Ultimate origin
Vulgar Latin *piccō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin beccus
Spanish pico
Spanish picar
Derivations
From the same root
Italian beccare ← beccus

Pronunciation

  • /piˈkaɾ/, [piˈkaɾ][1]

Forms

picar (first-person singular present pico, first-person singular preterite piqué, past participle picado)[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *piccāre (“to strike with a point”), a verb common to all the Romance languages of the West, of expressive or onomatopoeic origin.[2][3][4][1] The same verb is Portuguese picar, Catalan picar, Occitan picar, French piquer and Italian piccare; only Romanian lacks it.[2][4][5][6]

Corominas sees in it the root of Latin pīcus (“woodpecker”), named for its tapping, created anew in Romance for any tapping and then for piercing; the French form without palatalised /k/ shows its expressive character.[2] The DHLF likewise posits an expressive root *pikk-.[5] Wiktionary gives as alternatives a borrowing from Frankish *pikkōn (“to peck, strike”) or an onomatopoeic origin.[1] The DLE derives it from Spanish pico (“beak; pick”), and Gómez de Silva from a Vulgar Latin *piccus (“woodpecker”).[7][8] Corominas rejects this derivation, since the other Romance languages have the verb from early times but not that noun, though noun and verb have long influenced each other in Spanish.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) uses it of dressing worn millstones: Fuesse a río d'Ovirna los molinos picar e prender maquilas, commo lo suele far “let him go to the river Ubierna to dress the millstones and take his toll of flour, as he usually does”.[9][10][2]

Semantic evolution

The main senses can be traced from early on: “to wound with a pointed tool” in the Cid, birds pecking their food in the Libro de los animales que cazan of 1250, a fish taking the hook in Alonso de Palencia (1490), and in Nebrija “to scratch or bite the face”, “to pinch” and “to dress a millstone”.[2][9] From “to spur a horse” it came to mean “to ride on further”, and picarse “to pride oneself” appears in Cervantes.[2] The sense “to chop very small” is in Antonio de Guevara and is still usual in Murcia, Andalusia and Cuba; in León and Asturias, as in Catalan, picar is “to knock at the door”.[2][11]

Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as “to wound with a point” and listed picado, picadillo, picador and picante.[12] The 1737 Autoridades added the bite or sting of animals and chopping meat or herbs; the Academy's 1884 edition had the sense of the picador who meets the bull with his lance, and of foods that burn the palate.[11][13] In the Americas it also means to start a car abruptly, to tap trees for latex, to open a path through scrub (Mexico), to bounce (Costa Rica, Cuba, the Río de la Plata) and, reflexively, to get a little drunk.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses los molinos picar “to dress the millstones”.[9][2]
  • 1250 – the Libro de los animales que cazan uses it of hawks pecking their food.[9]
  • 1251 – Calila e Dimna has a bird that means to peck out a snake's eyes.[9]
  • 1277 – Alfonso X's astronomical works describe the constellation of the crow as if it picasse the snake.[15]
  • 1490 – Alonso de Palencia records a fish biting the hook.[2]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin lacero, mordeo, vellico and incutio.[2][16]
  • 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to prick, to bite as fish at a hook, to peck”.[17]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “to wound with a point”.[12]
  • 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “to sting, bite” and “to chop small”.[11]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from pico.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To prick a surface with a pointed instrument.[7]
  2. (transitive) To chop or mince into very small pieces: Pica la cebolla muy fina.[7][1]
  3. (transitive) To dress stone, or strip a wall, with a pick.[7]
  4. Of animals: to bite or sting with the beak, mouth or sting.[7][1]
  5. Of a bird: to peck its food.[7]
  6. Of a fish: to take the bait;[1] (figurative) to fall for a trick.[7]
  7. Of spicy things: to burn the palate, be hot; to itch.[7][1]
  8. (colloquial) To nibble, snack; to eat grapes one by one.[7][1]
  9. To spur a horse.[7]
  10. (bullfighting) Of a picador: to wound the bull in the neck with the lance.[7]
  11. (reflexive) To take offence; to go sour; of metal, to become pitted.[1]
  12. (Latin America) Of a car: to start off abruptly;[1] (reflexive) to get tipsy.[14]

Word family

  • piquete
  • picada
  • picadillo
  • picadero
  • picador
  • picadura
  • picante
  • picazón
  • picoso
  • despicar
  • empicarse
  • repicar
  • pica
  • piqueta
  • peca
  • picado
  • pico
  • picaza
  • Portuguese picar
  • French piquer
  • Italian piccare

Usage notes

Picar (muy) alto means “to aim too high”, and picárselas “to clear off” in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay.[7] The verb has the spelling change of verbs in -car: piqué.[11][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 518
  3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. picar
  4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ 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, 516
  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. picar
  8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. picar
  9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. picar
  10. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 388
  11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 255
  12. ^ 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. 1212
  13. ^ 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. 826
  14. ^ 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. picar
  15. ^ 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. picar
  16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 397
  17. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 189

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Picar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/picar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·