precipitoso

Forms

precipitoso (feminine precipitosa, masculine plural precipitosos, feminine plural precipitosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish precipitar + -oso: Corominas lists the adjective, without a date, among the derivatives of precipitar, beside precipitadero and precipitante.^[2] Echegaray related it to precipicio instead.^[3]

precipitar (about 1570) is borrowed from Latin praecipitō (“to throw headlong; to hasten”), from praeceps (“headlong”), a derivative of caput (“head”).^[4][2] The noun Echegaray named comes from praecipitium.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Autoridades records the word with two senses: “steep, slippery and dangerous to fall from”, quoting a crag in Ibáñez's Quintus Curtius, una peña rota y precipitosa, and Ercilla's Araucana; and figuratively “rash, acting without thought”, quoting Herrera's Hechos de los españoles on a Rey precipitoso y ambicioso.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Academy kept both senses through the 19th century; its 1884 edition defined the figurative one by referring to precipitado.^[6][7] Terreros gave the sense “steep, slippery” with Italian precipitoso as its equivalent.^[8] The DLE marks both senses as little used, and Moliner glosses the figurative one simply as precipitado.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1737 – Autoridades defines both senses, quoting Ercilla and Ibáñez for the literal one and Herrera for the figurative.^[5]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary still has both senses.^[6]
• 1884 – the figurative sense is defined as precipitado.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (rare) steep, slippery and dangerous, apt to make one fall headlong; precipitous: un sendero precipitoso junto al barranco.^[9][10][1]
2. (rare) Of a person: rash, hasty, acting without thought.^[9][10]

Related words

• precipicio
• precipitado
• precipitación
• cabeza

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 711
3. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 919
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. precipitar
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 348
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 696
7. ^ 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. 857
8. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 195
9. ^ a b c 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. precipitoso
10. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. precipitoso