rascar

Forms

rascar (first-person singular present rasco, first-person singular preterite rasqué, past participle rascado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rāsicāre (“to scrape”).^[2][3][4] The Old Spanish form was rascar.^[1] The Vulgar Latin verb is formed on rāsus (“scraped, shaven”), the past participle of rādō (“to scrape, shave”), which already meant “to scratch” in classical Latin.^[2][4][1] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 had derived it from a frequentative rasitare, and Lanchetas preferred the form with -ic-, comparing Sardinian rasigare.^[5][6]

The same verb is Portuguese rascar, Galician rascar, Catalan rascar and Occitan rascar; it is also old in Sardinian and found in dialects of northern Italy, while French and Italian use the related type French racler, Italian raschiare.^[2][7] García de Diego adds arrascar and Galician rasco (“trawl net”).^[8]

The Latin verb goes back to *rasd-e/o-, and its cognates are the Celtic verbs for “to scrape, shave”, such as Welsh rhathu.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Berceo, where the kin of a hanged man come to take him down rascados e dolientes, their faces torn in mourning.^[2][6] The early Castilian fueros use rascada for a woman who comes before the judges with her face scratched as proof of rape.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the serious texts of the 13th century the verb mostly meant to tear one's own face in grief or to scratch someone in attack: the Partidas speak of mourners who se rascan las caras et las desfiguran “scratch their faces and disfigure them”.^[2][11] Corominas thinks the everyday sense, scratching an itch, existed from the beginning, though he finds it only in the glossary of El Escorial of about 1400, and later in Palencia and Nebrija, who gives Latin scalpo.^[2][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as rubbing the skin hard with something sharp or rough, usually the nails, and recorded rascarse la faltriquera “to dig into one's pocket”.^[13]

Later senses include scraping something clean, playing a string instrument badly and, colloquially, getting something.^[4] In much of Latin America rascarse means to get drunk, and in Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay to laze about; in Mexico rascar is to dig up potatoes.^[14][15] The compound rascacielos (1923) is a calque of English skyscraper.^[3]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[3][2]
• c. 1234–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres uses the participle rascada for a woman with a scratched face.^[10]
• 1247 – a document of Sahagún names a Johan rasca vieyas.^[2]
• 1335 – first record of the derivative rascador.^[3]
• c. 1400 – the glossary of El Escorial has the sense “to scratch (an itch)”.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin scalpo and scabo.^[12]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[16]
• 1923 – first record of rascacielos.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To scratch: to rub the skin hard with something sharp or rough, usually the nails; often reflexive: No te rasques la herida.^[4][1]
2. To scratch or claw, to wound slightly with the nails.^[4]
3. To scrape something clean with a scraper.^[4]
4. To scrape on a string instrument, making a harsh sound.^[4][1]
5. (colloquial) To get or obtain something.^[4]
6. (reflexive, colloquial, Latin America) To get drunk.^[4][14][1]
7. (reflexive, colloquial, Río de la Plata, Bolivia, Paraguay) To idle, laze about.^[4][14]
8. (Mexico, rural) To dig up potatoes.^[14]

Word family

• rasca
• rascador
• rascadura
• rascazón
• rasqueta
• rascacielos

Related words

• raer
• raso
• rasgar
• rasguñar
• Latin rādō
• Portuguese rascar

Usage notes

Llevar or tener qué rascar is used in the same sense as llevar qué lamer.^[4][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 786
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rascar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. rascar
5. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 842
6. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 640
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7074
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5441
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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rascar
11. ^ 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. rascar
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 405
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 492
14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. rascar
15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 14
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. rascar
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. 898