rotura

Forms

rotura f (plural roturas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ruptūra (“breaking, fracture”).^[2][1][3][4] Its learned doublet is ruptura, first recorded in Laguna in 1555.^[4][3][1] García de Diego gives the same inherited form for Portuguese and Catalan, Portuguese rotura and Catalan rotura, and the REW adds Italian rottura and French roture, which means newly cleared land.^[5][6] French rupture was borrowed from Latin in 1372.^[7]

The Latin noun is formed from rumpō (“to break”) with the suffix -ūra.^[8][1] Classical Latin used it for the fracture of a limb; in Medieval Latin it also meant the clearing of waste land and the land so reclaimed.^[8][9][10] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *Hreup- (“to break”).^[11] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived the word from the participle roto instead.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where a prophet tears his cloak into twelve pieces: rompielo en .xii. roturas.^[14] DEMel and the CORDE figures in DICCA-XV list an earlier record in the Fuero de Avilés, dated 1155.^[15][16] Corominas cites the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240) and dates the word to about 1250.^[4][3][14]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word meant a breach or tear, as in the Gospel of Matthew of about 1260, and land broken for the first time: the Vidal Mayor explains noualios as roturas de nueuo.^[14] Alfonso X used it for a split in a solid body.^[17] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) equated it with rompimiento, quoting the Lazarillo for wounds and a chronicle for a breach of the peace.^[18]

In 1817 the Academy defined it as the first ploughing of land never tilled before, figuratively as disorder and licentiousness, and as the veterinary plaster called contrarrotura.^[19] The sense “disorder” appears in documents from Costa Rica and Buenos Aires in the early 17th century.^[20] By 1899 the moral sense was marked obsolete.^[13] The agricultural sense survives regionally: in Cantabria, Andalusia and León rotura is a piece of newly ploughed land, and in Cuba the first ploughing.^{[21][22][23][24]} In medicine it is a tear in a tissue or organ.^[25]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – roturas “pieces” in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[14]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio;^[4][14] Corominas's first record.^[4][14]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor uses it for newly broken land.^[14]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for a split in a solid body.^[17]
• 1555 – the learned doublet ruptura appears in Laguna.^[4]
• 1605 – the sense “disorder” in a document from Costa Rica.^[20]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades equates it with rompimiento.^[18]
• 1817 – the Academy records the ploughing, moral and veterinary senses.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. breakage: the act or result of breaking or being broken: La rotura del tubo inundó la cocina.^[2][26]
2. A crack or split in a solid body.^[2][17]
3. (medicine) A rupture or tear in a tissue or organ.^[25][26]
4. (veterinary) A plaster applied to treat a sprain or dislocation;^[2][21] contrarrotura.^[2][21]
5. (obsolete) Laxity, corruption, disorder.^[2][13]
6. (regional: Cantabria, Andalusia, León) Newly ploughed land.^[21][22]
7. (Cuba) The first ploughing of land for cultivation.^[24]

Word family

• roturar
• roturación
• contrarrotura

Related words

• romper
• roto
• ruptura
• Latin ruptūra
• French roture

Usage notes

For the breaking off of relations between people the DLE uses the learned ruptura;^[27][21] Moliner also gives rotura for the breaking off of negotiations.^[27][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. rotura
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. romper
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 49
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5783
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
14. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rotura
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
16. ^ 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
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. rotura
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
20. ^ 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
21. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
22. ^ a b Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 556
23. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. rotura
24. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
25. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es
26. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
27. ^ a b 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. ruptura