pinchar

Forms

pinchar (first-person singular present pincho, first-person singular preterite pinché, past participle pinchado)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably a blend from Spanish punchar + picar, both meaning “to prick”.^[2][3][4][1] punchar is a variant of punzar, from Vulgar Latin *punctiāre, formed from Latin punctus (“a prick”), the past participle of pungō (“to prick, puncture”).^[1][5][6] Corominas finds the first verb in the Corbacho of 1438 and in Covarrubias, and it is also Catalan punxar.^[2] The second had been in use since the Cid.^[2][3] The very late record of the blend, its low register and its narrow, strictly Castilian spread all point, in his view, to a word made by crossing.^[2]

García de Diego had proposed instead a crossing of the Latin source of the verb meaning “to prick” with an onomatopoeic type, or a form Vulgar Latin *pinctiāre taking the ⟨i⟩ of the verb meaning “to peck, prick”.^[2][7] The REW grouped the Spanish verb with French pincer and Italian pinzare under such a base.^[2][7] Corominas rejects that base: Portuguese pinchar means “to make jump, push, knock over” and is unrelated, of unknown origin, the Italian verb is rare and recent, and the French one, “to pinch”, belongs to the expressive family of Italian pizzicare.^[2][3] Gómez de Silva and Bénaben still mention the link with the French verb.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas knew the verb only from the Diccionario de Autoridades (1737), which defines it as “to prick or wound with something sharp, such as a thorn or a pin” and calls it a low word; it is missing from Covarrubias, Oudin, the Quijote and the medieval glossaries.^[2][10] The CDH has earlier hits: Juan Fernández de Heredia's Aragonese translation of Orosius (1376–1396) says that people are pinchados “pricked” by the goad of envy without feeling it, and 15th-century medical translations speak of pricking a centipede with a needle (c. 1471) and of a person stung by a venomous animal (1494).^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's dictionary of 1884 derived the verb from pincho, and in 1884 it was also first marked as used reflexively.^[12] Moratín already used the nouns pincho and pinchazo about 1800, and the literary use of the verb begins in the 19th century.^[2][3] In the 20th century the verb took on many new uses: to give someone an injection, to tease or goad someone, to tap a telephone line, to play records, to get a flat tyre, to fail, and to click on a computer screen.^[4][13][1] In slang it means to inject oneself with drugs and, in Spain, to have sex.^[14][4] Chile, Paraguay and Argentina use it for a passing romantic or sexual relationship, and Puerto Rico for “to snoop, spy on”.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia's translation of Orosius has pinchados “pricked”.^[11]
• c. 1471 – a medical translation tells how to prick a centipede with a needle.^[11]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records pinchar as a low word.^[10][3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the derivative pinche “kitchen boy”.^[2][3]
• 1843 – the first record from the Americas, in Uruguay.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives the verb from pincho and adds the reflexive use.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prick or pierce someone or something with a sharp point; also reflexive: Se pinchó el dedo con una espina.^[4][1]
2. To fix something in place with a pin or other sharp object.^[4]
3. To give someone an injection; also reflexive.^[4]
4. To goad, provoke or annoy someone.^[4][18]
5. To tap a telephone line or call.^[4][1]
6. (colloquial) To play records; to work as a DJ.^[4][1]
7. (intransitive) Of a tyre or a vehicle and its occupants: to get a puncture: Pinchamos a la salida del pueblo.^[4]
8. (intransitive) Of a part of the body: to give a sharp, stabbing pain.^[4]
9. (intransitive, colloquial) Of a project, a person or a team: to fail.^[4][1]
10. (computing) To click (clicar) on something on a screen.^[4][1]
11. (reflexive, colloquial) To inject oneself with drugs.^[4][1]

Word family

• pinchazo
• pinchadiscos
• pinchadura
• pinche
• pincho

Related words

• punzar
• punchar
• picar
• compinche

Usage notes

The set phrase ni pinchar ni cortar “neither prick nor cut” means to have little weight or influence in a matter.^[4] In Lanzarote and Fuerteventura pinchar means “to jump, bounce”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 353
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pinchar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. pinchar
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 619
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6851
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5036
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 549
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. pinchar
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 274
11. ^ 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. pinchar
12. ^ 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. 832
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. pinchar
14. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. pinchar
15. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pinchar
16. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 658
17. ^ 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. pinchar
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pinchar
19. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. pinchar