rasar

Forms

rasar (first-person singular present raso, first-person singular preterite rasé, past participle rasado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish raso + -ar, according to the DLE, Moliner and García de Diego.^[2][3][4] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of raer, beside the adjective, which continues Latin rāsus (“scraped, shaved”), the past participle of rādō (“to scrape, shave”).^[5][6]

Wiktionary and the REW instead trace the verb to *rāsāre (“to shave”), a Latin verb formed on that participle, which is also the source of Italian rasare, French raser, Catalan rasar and Portuguese rasar.^[1][7] Covarrubias in 1611 already derived it from the supine of the Latin verb.^[8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *rasd-e/o-, and de Vaan compares Welsh rhathu (“to scrape, shave”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy), where the moat of a city is deep and de agua bien rasada “brimful of water”.^[10][11] In Alfonso X's General estoria (c. 1275) a man's eyes rasaron … de agua “filled with tears”.^[10] Corominas and the BDELC date the verb only from Nebrija, 1495.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija records rasar la medida, Latin hostio, “to strike off a measure of grain”, and the noun rasadura.^[5][12] Covarrubias explains rasar as a vessel being full to the brim, levelled with the rasero, the round stick used to strike off dry measures.^[8] Autoridades gives this sense and a second one, “to pass lightly grazing another body”.^[13] Corominas notes that rasar was used earlier with the sense of arrasar “to raze”, and in 1558 a text from La Paz says that many woods han rasado “have been cleared”.^[5][14] The DLE keeps that sense as little used.^[2]

Salvá in 1846 records the phrase rasarse los ojos de agua o lágrimas “for the eyes to fill with tears”, which is still found in Mexico in 1945.^[15][14] The Academy gave the etymology de raso from 1884.^[16] In Andalusia a horse rasa when its incisors become level, at about eight years.^[17]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – agua bien rasada in the Libro de Alexandre.^[10][11]
• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses rasarse of eyes filling with tears.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records rasar la medida, the BDELC's first date.^[6][5]
• 1558 – first record in the Americas, at La Paz, in the sense “to clear”.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines rasar and rasero.^[8]
• 1737 – Autoridades adds the sense “to graze”.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá records rasarse los ojos de lágrimas.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from raso.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To level a measure of wheat, barley or the like with a strickle (rasero).^[2][18]
2. (transitive) Of a body, to graze or skim another in passing: El balón rasó el larguero.^[2][3][1]
3. (transitive, rare) To raze, destroy completely (the same as arrasar).^[2][3]
4. (rasarse) Of the sky, to become clear of clouds.^[3][18]
5. (rasarse) Of the eyes, to fill with tears.^[15][14]

Word family

• rasante
• rasadura

Related words

• raer
• rascar
• rasura
• raso
• ras
• rasero
• enrasar
• Latin rādō
• French raser
• English raze

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. rasar
3. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rasar
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5448
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 748
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. raer
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *rasāre
8. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1246
9. ^ 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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rasar
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. rasar
12. ^ 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. rasar
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 491
14. ^ a b c d 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. rasar
15. ^ a b c Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 913
16. ^ 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. 897
17. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 524
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. rasar