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puro

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word puro

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1220–1250 Gonzalo de Berceo More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin purus
Ultimate origin
Latin pūrus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pūrus
French pur
Italian puro
Spanish puro
From the same root
Latin pūrē ← pūrus
Latin pūrgō ← pūrus
Latin pūritās ← pūrus
Latin puriter ← pūrus
Latin pūrō ← pūrus

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpuɾo/, [ˈpu.ɾo][1]

Forms

puro (feminine pura, masculine plural puros, feminine plural puras)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pūrus (“clean, pure”), and Old Spanish puro has the same form.[2][3][4][1] The word is common to the western Romance languages: Portuguese puro, Catalan pur, Occitan pur, French pur and Italian puro.[2][5] The noun “cigar” is short for cigarro puro, a cigar of pure tobacco, rolled without paper.[1][6]

pūrus continues Proto-Italic *pūro- (“pure”).[7] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ph₂u-ro- (“clear, cleansed”) and compares Old Irish úr (“green, fresh”), from the same stem, and Indo-Iranian verbs for cleaning;[7] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to cleanse, purify”), the source also of putus and pius.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the word first in Berceo, and in general use in the Middle Ages, in the Libro de Apolonio and Juan Ruiz.[2][3] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for a colour without admixture: „su color es amariello bien puro” “its colour is a very pure yellow”.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Already in Alfonso X's prose puro also meant disinterested, unconditional (pura amor) and mere.[8] The phrase de puro “out of sheer, from being so” is in Saint Teresa: „sabía poco … de puro descuidada” “she knew little, out of sheer carelessness”, and in Quevedo's Buscón.[2] Used so before an adjective, puro should not agree with it, but forms such as de puros cobardes occur from about 1530 and are found today in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.[2] In Mexico, Chile and elsewhere in the Americas puro before a noun “only, nothing but” is much more frequent than in Spain.[10]

Covarrubias in 1611 gives wine and truth as examples (vino puro, verdad pura).[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds “great, excessive” with de and the moral sense “chaste”.[12] The Academy recorded the noun puro “cigar” in 1869, and the sense “correct, free of foreign words” of language and style in 1884.[13][14] In colloquial Spain puro is also a punishment or fine; in military slang meter un puro is to punish or arrest someone.[4][15][1]

The cigar was borrowed as English puro, Greek πούρο and Turkish puro.[1] The phrase in púribus “stark naked” (1605) and Asturian en pures are alterations of a Latin phrase in puris carnibus.[2]

Timeline

  • 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.[2][3]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario calls a colour amariello bien puro.[8]
  • 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas has pura amor, unconditional love.[8]
  • 1494 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo: por puro temor “out of sheer fear”.[16]
  • c. 1530 – the agreeing de puros cobardes appears in Guevara.[2]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as what has no admixture, as vino puro.[11]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds “excessive” with de and “chaste”.[12]
  • 1869 – the Academy's dictionary records the noun “cigar”.[13]
  • 1884 – it adds the sense of correct language and style and gives the etymology Latin purus.[14]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. pure: free from any admixture of anything else: Es una camisa de algodón puro.[4][10][1]
  2. Disinterested and honest in holding an office or administering justice.[4]
  3. (law) Unconditional: with no condition, exception, restriction or term.[4][17]
  4. chaste, free of sensuality.[4]
  5. Free of moral imperfection.[4]
  6. mere, sheer, nothing but; usually before the noun: Lo dijo por puro miedo.[4][10][1]
  7. Of language or style: correct, following grammar and good usage.[4]
  8. Of a person: using such language or style.[4]

Noun

  1. cigar: tobacco leaves rolled without paper.[4][1]
  2. (Spain, colloquial) A punishment, sanction or fine.[4][15][1]
  3. (Central America) A marijuana cigarette.[18]

Adverb

  1. (Bolivia, Chile) Only, merely.[18][1]

Word family

  • pureza
  • puramente
  • purísima
  • impuro
  • impureza
  • puridad
  • apurar
  • purasangre
  • puré
  • purificar
  • puritano
  • purista
  • purgar
  • depurar
  • Latin pūrus
  • Portuguese puro

Usage notes

De puro and a puro mean “out of sheer, by dint of”.[4][19] Before an adjective puro is an invariable adverb in the standard language (de puro descuidada), though agreement is found in several American countries.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 698
  3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puro
  4. ^ 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. puro
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. purus
  6. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1394
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d 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. puro
  9. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. puro
  10. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puro
  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. 1238
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 441
  13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 646
  14. ^ 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. 883
  15. ^ a b León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. puro
  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. puro
  17. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 633
  18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. puro
  19. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 601

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Puro.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/puro. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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