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pulir

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word pulir

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1250 Alfonso X, Lapidario More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin polio via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin poliō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin poliō
Italian pulire
Spanish pulir
From the same root
Latin expoliō ← poliō
Latin polītus ← poliō

Pronunciation

  • /puˈliɾ/, [puˈliɾ][1]

Forms

pulir (first-person singular present pulo, first-person singular preterite pulí, past participle pulido)[1] The older form is polir, which alternated with pule as podrir did with pudre;[1] Nebrija (1495) knows only forms with o.[2] Polido lasted beside pulir into the Quijote, but Covarrubias (1611) admits only pulido;[1] Corominas's first record of pulir is from 1605.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish polir, inherited from Latin poliō (“to smooth, polish”).[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Catalan polir, Italian pulire and Asturian pulir, which also means “to slip away” in Asturian;[5][6][7][1] Portuguese has the learned polir beside the popular puir (“to wear away by rubbing”).[5][6][7][1] French polir is recorded from about 1180.[8]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.[9][1] Vendryes held it to be a word of the fullers, from a stem Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to beat”) also seen in Germanic words for felt; the older view that it was drawn from the perfect of polinō (“to besmear”) was rejected by Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet and revived by Seldeslachts.[9] Wiktionary also mentions a link with Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to swing, shake”), from swinging and beating cloth to full it.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is polir in Alfonso de Palencia (1490), who glosses polido as “filed, cleaned, adorned”.[2][3] The CDH has much earlier records: in Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250, in a manuscript of the same years) a stone has a certain virtue quando la pulen o la muelen “when they polish it or grind it”.[10][11] The first sense was to smooth and make lustrous, said of stones and metals.[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General estoria already uses the verb of smoothing tablets for writing.[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) defines it as to give the last touch to something for greater perfection, and also to adorn.[12] The Academy's 1884 edition adds a figurative sense, to rid someone of rusticity by teaching good manners, and the 1899 edition adds two senses of thieves' cant, to sell or pawn and to steal.[13][14] The cant sense “to steal” is recorded as early as 1609.[2]

Corominas groups the slang and colloquial senses around the idea of wearing away: in Asturias, Santander and Biscay pulir means to squander, or to run away.[2] In Cuba pulirla is to toil hard.[15] In Mexico, Central America and Peru the pronominal pulirse means to excel, to do something admirably well.[16]

Timeline

  • c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo, known from a 15th-century copy, has polir oro.[10][17]
  • c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses pulen of polishing stones.[10]
  • c. 1275 – the General estoria has poliessen and polidos.[10]
  • 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses polir, Corominas's first record.[2][3]
  • 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin polio and expolio for polir.[18]
  • 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo: polir e limar.[19]
  • 1605 – first record of the form pulir.[3]
  • 1609 – Hidalgo records the cant sense “to steal, to sell”.[2]
  • 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes that the verb used to be said polir.[12]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the figurative sense “to refine a person”.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To polish: to make something smooth and lustrous.[4][1]
  2. To put the finishing touches to something, perfecting it.[4]
  3. To adorn or dress up; mostly reflexive.[4]
  4. To revise and correct something to improve it: Pasó la noche puliendo el discurso.[4]
  5. To squander.[4]
  6. To make someone more refined and elegant; also reflexive.[4]
  7. (thieves' cant) To sell or pawn.[4]
  8. (thieves' cant) To steal.[4]
  9. (colloquial) To beat up.[1]

Word family

  • pulido
  • pulidor
  • pulidez
  • repulir
  • pulimentar
  • pulimento
  • polizón
  • interpolar
  • Portuguese puir
  • Latin poliō

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 688
  3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pulir
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. pulir
  5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5127
  6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. puir
  7. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2766
  8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. polir
  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. ^ 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. pulir
  11. ^ 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. pulir
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 429
  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. 879
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 824
  15. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 433
  16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pulir
  17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pulir
  18. ^ 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. pulir
  19. ^ 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. polir

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pulir.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/pulir. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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