pozo

Forms

pozo m (plural pozos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote poço and pozo, with rarer puço, puzo and poso; the medieval consonant was the voiced affricate written ⟨z⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish poço, inherited from Latin puteus (“well; pit”).^[3][4][5][1] The word has been in use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese poço, Catalan pou, French puits, Italian pozzo and Romanian puț.^[6][7] Latin also lent it to the neighbouring languages: German Pfütze (“puddle”) goes back to it.^[6][8]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[9][1] De Vaan notes that its short /u/ rules out a direct link with paviō (“to strike”), that a link with putō (“to prune”) fits the meaning poorly, and that the word may well be a loan.^[9] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *paw- (“to strike”) but calls the origin uncertain.^[1] Bénaben and the DHLF suggest an Etruscan source, from the ending -eus.^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 938 in Oelschläger's list.^[3][4] The first literary texts use it for a well dug for water: the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211) puts Daniel en el pozo de los leones “in the lions' den”, and the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) has Abraham's servant come al pozo o abevravan todos los de la cibdat “to the well where all the people of the city drew water”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Literary use begins with Berceo, who calls the many miracles of the Virgin grant pozo fondo, a deep well with no bottom to be found.^[3][12] Alfonso X's Lapidario already speaks of a well of fresh water.^[13]

Autoridades (1737) added the deepest stretch of a river, where artificial pools were made to catch salmon, and the pot of counters in the card game cascarela.^[14] The 1817 dictionary has the square of the goose game where a player is stuck, and the figure of something full and deep, as in pozo de ciencia for a very learned person.^[15] The mine shaft entered the Academy's dictionary in 1869, and the nautical senses appear in Domínguez.^[16][17]

In the Americas and in Santander it can mean a pond or puddle; in the Río de la Plata, Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela it means a pothole, and in several countries a bathing place in a river.^[3][5][18]

Timeline

• 938 – first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum uses it for Daniel's den of lions.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has un pozo dagua dulce “a well of fresh water”.^[13]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses puteus as el pozo.^[19]
• 1517 – first record in the Americas, a well dug in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1737 – Autoridades adds the deep part of a river and the pot in a card game.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the mine shaft.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin puteus.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A well: a hole bored into the ground to reach a vein of water: Cavaron un pozo junto a la casa.^[5][1]
2. A deep pit, even a dry one.^[5][22]
3. The deepest part of a river.^[5][14]
4. The common pot in some card games;^[18] (Ecuador to the Río de la Plata) the prize money in a game of chance.^[5][18]
5. In the goose game, the square where a player stays until another lands on it.^[5]
6. Something full or deep in its kind: un pozo de ciencia “a well of learning”.^[5][22]
7. (mining) A shaft for going down into a mine.^[5][22]
8. (nautical) The part of a ship's hold under each hatch; the bilge; a tank in fishing boats for keeping the catch alive.^[5]
9. (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela) A pothole in a road.^[5][18]
10. (Bolivia, Venezuela and elsewhere) A place in a river good for bathing.^[5][18]

Word family

• poza
• pozal
• pozanco
• pozuelo
• pocero
• empozar

Related words

• Latin puteus
• Portuguese poço
• Catalan pou

Usage notes

The phrase pozo Airón names a bottomless pit, and figuratively a place where things vanish for good.^[5][23] Pozo artesiano “artesian well” is in the Academy's dictionary from 1843.^[24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pozo
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, 629
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pozo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. pozo
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6877
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5303
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. pozo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pozo
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 599
13. ^ a b 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. pozo
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 343
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 695
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 625
17. ^ 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, 1413
18. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pozo
19. ^ 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. pozo
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. pozo
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 855
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pozo
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pozo
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 581