pulgar

Forms

pulgar m (plural pulgares)^[1] Old Spanish also had polgar, the form that agrees with the Latin; it is in one manuscript of Berceo's Santo Domingo, in the Alexandre and in Alfonso de Palencia, and survives in Asturian.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pulgar, inherited from Latin pollicāris (“of the size of a thumb”), an adjective formed with -āris on pollex (“thumb”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]} Baist and Zauner explained the ⟨u⟩ for expected ⟨o⟩ by a folk etymology from pulga (“flea”), because the thumb is used to crush insects.^[2][4] Corominas supports this with names of the thumb such as the Majorcan matapuces (“flea-killer”), and “louse-killer” in southern France and northern Italy.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese polegar, Galician polgar, Asturian polgar, Old Occitan polgar and Old French pochier, and the Mozarabic form was pullicar.^[7][3][2]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain: it has traditionally been linked with Proto-Slavic *palьcь (“finger, thumb”), but de Vaan finds that this does not explain the Latin form and prefers Meier-Brügger's derivation from a Proto-Italic compound meaning “which is licked over”, with the root of Latin lingō (“to lick”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first records are Berceo and the Fuero de Guadalajara of 1219.^[2][4] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250, in a 13th-century copy) tells how the king Adonibezek's pulgares de las manos y de los pies “the thumbs of his hands and big toes of his feet” were cut off.^[9][10] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) has a law on el que cortare dedo pulgar “whoever cuts off a thumb”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa the faithful cross themselves con el dedo pulgar “with the thumb”.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 records pulgada as a measure of the thumb's width, pulgarada for a squeeze of the thumb, hilado por estos pulgares said of a hard-working woman, and menear los pulgares for looking at one's playing cards slowly.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds por sus pulgares “by one's own hand, without help”, and the second sense of menear los pulgares, “to hurry at work done with the fingers”.^[12]

The Academy's dictionary of 1843 adds the vine-dressing sense, the stub of a pruned shoot left with two or three buds.^[13] García de Diego records the same sense in La Rioja.^[3] Moliner extends the word to the big toe.^[14]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has pulgares, in a 13th-century copy.^[9][10]
• 1219 – Corominas's first record, in the Fuero de Guadalajara.^[2][4]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo has polgares.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has polgar for the thumb of a star figure.^[15]
• 1495 – the derivative empulgar “to cock a crossbow” is first recorded.^[4]
• 1540 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records menear los pulgares.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the vine-dressing sense.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin pollex.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. thumb: the first and thickest finger of the hand, which can be set against the other fingers (dedo pulgar).^[5][1][14]
2. The big toe.^[1][18]
3. (viticulture) The stub of a vine shoot left with two or three buds at pruning, from which the new shoots grow.^[5]

Word family

• pulgarada
• empulgar
• repulgar

Related words

• pulgada
• pulga
• Latin pollex
• Portuguese polegar

Usage notes

Set phrases are menear los pulgares, “to hurry at a task done with the fingers” and, in card games, “to look at one's cards slowly”, and por sus pulgares, “by one's own hand, without help”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 686
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pollicaris
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pulgar
5. ^ a b c d 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. pulgar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. pulgar
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pulgar
11. ^ 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. 1236
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 428
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 598
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pulgar
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. pulgar
16. ^ 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. pulgar
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 878
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pulgar