ronco

Forms

ronco (feminine ronca, masculine plural roncos, feminine plural roncas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ronco, inherited from Latin raucus (“hoarse”), with its nasal from roncar “to snore”.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas supposes that the Latin word first gave *roco, which the influence of the verb then turned into the present form; the Academy's dictionary of 2001 explains it the same way.^[2][5]

Without that influence the word is Portuguese rouco and Galician rouco, and western Asturian rouco; elsewhere it is Italian roco, Occitan rauc and Old French ro, while Catalan ronc took the nasal like Spanish.^[2][6] rauco is a learned doublet.^[1]

The Latin adjective is formed from rāvis (“hoarseness”) with the suffix -cus.^[7][1] Gómez de Silva traces it to *rauko-, from a variant of the root *reu- (“to roar”), also behind rugir.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1220–1250), where no clumsy or hoarse birds settle in the meadow: aves torpes nin roncas hi non se acostavan.^[2][3][9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) uses the adjective of the chest from which a cry comes, and a medical text of the 13th century of low, hoarse voices.^[10] Autoridades defines it as having hoarseness and, of a voice or sound, rough and harsh, with quotations from Quevedo and Solís.^[11] Terreros and the Academy's dictionary of 1817 record the astrologers' term for the signs Aries, Taurus, Leo and Capricorn.^[12][13]

The first record from the Americas is from Mexico City in 1571.^[14] In Cuba, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico ronco is the name of sea fishes of the genus Haemulon, and in the Canary Islands of another coastal fish.^[15][16][4]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Milagros have roncas of birds.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has the noun roncos “snores”.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses the adjective.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin raucus as its equivalent.^[17]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the adjective and the noun “snore”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy records the astrological sense.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin raucus.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. hoarse: having a hoarse voice: Volvió ronco del estadio.^[4][1]
2. Of a voice or sound: harsh, rough and deep: el ronco bramido del viento.^[4][19]

Noun

1. (Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico) A sea fish of the Caribbean, of the genus Haemulon, bluish on the back with blue and yellow stripes along the body.^[4][15][19]
2. (Canary Islands) A coastal fish, Pomadasys incisus.^[16]

Word family

• ronquera
• enronquecer
• ronquedad

Related words

• roncar
• rauco
• Latin raucus
• Portuguese rouco

Usage notes

An old noun ronco “snore” is in Alfonso X's Lapidario;^[11] Autoridades calls it less common than ronquido except in jesting style.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 5, 49
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. roncar
4. ^ 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. ronco
5. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ronco
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. raucus
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. ronco
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ronco
10. ^ 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. ronco
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 639
12. ^ 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, 393
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 770
14. ^ a b 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. ronco
15. ^ 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. ronco
16. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. ronco
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 411
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 941
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ronco