rabia

Forms

rabia f (plural rabias)^[1] Berceo, Juan Ruiz, Alfonso de Palencia and Nebrija spell it ravia, and the Sephardic Jews of Bosnia still pronounce it with a labiodental /v/.^[2] The DEMel lists the medieval spellings rauia, rauja, ravia and rabia.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rabia, the popular form of Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness”).^[2][4][5][1] The spelling with ⟨v⟩ in the medieval texts shows that the word developed as a popular, not a learned, word.^[2] Lanchetas compares this change with that of materies to materia.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese raiva, Galician raiva, Catalan ràbia, Occitan ràbia, French rage and Italian rabbia.^[7][8][2] English rage is a cognate.^[1]

The Latin noun is formed from rabiō (“to rave, be mad”) with the suffix -iēs.^[1] The OLD compares a Sanskrit word for violence,^[9] and Gómez de Silva traces the family to Proto-Indo-European *rabh- (“violent, impetuous”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, known from an 18th-century copy), where men who have just dined are roused con la rabia, in a fit of fury.^[11][4] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen Mary stands by the cross con ravia del Fijo, and Lanchetas reads the word there as grief and anguish rather than anger.^[6][11] The disease of dogs is named in the Moamín (1250) and in Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250).^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word both for the disease of dogs and for violent anger;^[12] Alfonso X's Estoria de España curses Count Julian, who was mad con su rauia.^[12] Salvá (1846) still records an obsolete sense “pain, sorrow”.^[13] Covarrubias (1611) defines it as a disease that dogs catch in the dog days, and notes that the word and its derivatives were applied metaphorically to an angry man.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades describes the disease in the humoral terms of its time and gives the extended sense “anger, great annoyance” and the proverb de rabia mató la perra, said of someone who cannot take revenge on the offender and vents his anger on the first thing at hand.^[15][5] Terreros extended it to any violent pain and to a strong desire to do or have something.^[16]

The Academy's 1899 edition describes the disease clinically, with its horror of water, and includes the disease of chickpeas, a rust that attacks them when hot sun follows rain.^[17][5] Moliner records the colloquial uses dar rabia “to annoy” and tener rabia a alguien “to bear someone a grudge”.^[18] In Peru mala rabia is a Lenten dish of plantain, and in Venezuela malas rabias is a plantain dessert.^[19] In Puerto Rico rabia names a sweet made with sweet potato.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has the first record, in a copy of the 18th century.^[11][4]
• c. 1236–1246 – Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen spells it ravia.^[11][2]
• 1250 – the Moamín, a book on hunting animals, uses rauia for a disease of hawks and dogs.^[11]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for fury.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin rabies and lymphatio for ravia.^[21]
• 1576 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it a disease of dogs in the dog days.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the proverb de rabia mató la perra.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary includes the disease of chickpeas.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (pathology) rabies: a viral disease of some animals, passed to other animals and to people by a bite, through the saliva.^[5][1][23]
2. (botany) A rust of chickpeas, which they catch when strong sun follows rain.^[5][18]
3. rage, anger, great fury: Golpeó la mesa con rabia.^[5][1]
4. (colloquial) Annoyance or vexation at something that turns out badly: Me da rabia haber llegado tarde.^[18][24]
5. (colloquial) Dislike, a grudge against someone: Le tiene rabia a su vecino.^[18][24]

Word family

• rabiar
• rabieta
• rabioso
• enrabiar
• cascarrabias

Related words

• rabiada
• rábico
• antirrábico
• Latin rabies
• Portuguese raiva
• English rage

Usage notes

Con rabia after an adjective, mostly a negative one, means “very, excessively”.^[5] The proverb de rabia mató la perra is said of someone who takes out his anger on the first thing at hand.^[5][15] Muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia “once the dog is dead, the rabies is over” is a set phrase.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 743
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. rabia
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rabia
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. rabia
6. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. rabia
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. rabies
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5380
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. rabia
11. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rabia
12. ^ a b c 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. rabia
13. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 908
14. ^ 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. 1247
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 478
16. ^ 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, 270
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 837
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rabia
19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. rabia
20. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. rabia
21. ^ 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. rabia
22. ^ 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. rabia
23. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. rabia
24. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. rabia