rumiar

Forms

rumiar (first-person singular present rumio, first-person singular preterite rumié, past participle rumiado)^[1] Dialect forms include rumear and romiar in Salamanca and rumar in Navarre.^[2] Aragonese has remugar, with metathesis, as Catalan does.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rūmigāre (“to chew the cud”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas derives the Latin verb from rūma (“first stomach of a ruminant”).^[3][4] The OLD analyses it as rūmen (“gullet, first stomach”) with the verbal suffix -igō, and records it first in Apuleius and Gargilius Martialis.^[6] In Apuleius the verb seems to mean rather “to swallow”.^[7]

The verb left descendants in all the Romance languages.^[3] They include Portuguese romiar and Occitan romiar, Catalan remugar, Old French rungier, Italian rugumare and Romanian rumega.^[8] Coromines explains the Catalan form as a metathesis of an older form with ⟨-umeg-⟩, helped by the prefix re- of repeated action, since the animal chews its food again.^[9] The verb French ronger (“to gnaw”) comes from the same Latin word, crossed with a Vulgar Latin verb from rōdō (“to gnaw”).^[7][1]

Wiktionary traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *roug(s)mən, probably from the root of the verbs for belching, Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg-, though the origin is disputed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Libro de buen amor of Juan Ruiz, where the poet's go-between eats the meal himself and leaves the lover to chew the cud: él comió la vianda e a mí fazié rumiar “he ate the food and made me ruminate”.^[3][4] Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) has it earlier, of animals that chew the cud, whose fat is called tallow: si fuere de animalia que rumie es sevo.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The verb has been in general use in every period.^[3] Nebrija gave it as Latin rumino, and the figurative sense “to think over slowly” is already in Spanish texts around 1400 and in the American documents of the 16th century: V.S. lo podrá considerar y rumiar (Mexico, 1564).^[10][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave both senses, the literal one with quotations from Laguna's Dioscorides and the figurative one from Luis de la Puente's meditations.^[13] Domínguez noted a pronominal use in 1846, and the Academy marked the figurative sense as colloquial from 1884.^[14][15]

The DLE now adds the colloquial sense “to grumble”, and Moliner notes that the verb is often used with a reproachful sense, of brooding over something too long.^[5][16] In Bolivia it is used of chewing coca leaves to suck their juice.^[17]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses the verb of cud-chewing animals.^[10][11]
• 1330–1343 – the Libro de buen amor of Juan Ruiz, the DCECH's first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives rumiar el ganado as Latin rumino.^[3]
• 1551 – the first American record, from Santo Domingo, of animals that chew the cud like sheep.^[12]
• 1555 – rumiante first appears, in Laguna.^[3][4]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the literal and figurative senses.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the figurative sense as colloquial.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) Of a ruminant, to ruminate or chew the cud: to chew a second time food brought back up from the first stomach: Las cabras rumiaban a la sombra de la encina.^[5][16]
2. (transitive, colloquial) To ponder, think something over slowly and carefully: Rumió la propuesta durante días antes de contestar.^[5][1]
3. (transitive, colloquial) To grumble, mutter in complaint (rezongar, refunfuñar).^[5]
4. (Bolivia) To chew coca leaves, sucking their juice little by little.^[17]

Word family

• rumia
• rumiante
• rumiador

Related words

• Latin rūmigō
• Catalan remugar

Usage notes

Corominas notes that the present was stressed rúmia in Argensola, Quevedo and the Diccionario de Autoridades, while Sicilia and Salvá recommended rumía, a stress some speakers in the Americas use.^[3] The usual forms today are rumio, rumia.^[1][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5774
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 83
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rumiar
5. ^ 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. rumiar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ronger
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7440
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 238
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rumiar
11. ^ a b 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. rumiar
12. ^ 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. rumiar
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 655
14. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1530
15. ^ 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. 946
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rumiar
17. ^ 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. rumiar