salchicha

Forms

salchicha f (plural salchichas)^[1] An earlier form salciza is recorded in 1490.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian salciccia, a 16th–17th-century variant of the more common salsiccia, recorded in the 14th century.^[2][4][1] The Italian word is from Late Latin salsīcia, short for farta salsicia (“salted stuffings”), from Latin salsus (“salted”), the participle of sallō (“to salt”).^[2][4][5][1] The Late Latin word was a neuter plural taken for a feminine singular.^[6] The Italian alteration is put down to the Italian nursery word ciccia (“meat”), which Spanish also has as chicha.^[2][5][3]

Nocentini notes that French saucisse continues the Latin word, while Spanish took it from Italian.^[6] The DELI dates the Italian word to 1344, with an older Genoese form in the 13th century.^[7] Catalan salsitja also continues the Latin word.^[8] An older explanation, which García de Diego cites from Gröber and Meyer-Lübke, joined sal (“salt”) and isicium (“minced meat”); the Academy's dictionary once gave the same etymon.^[8][3] Covarrubias in 1611 explained the word as the Spanish words for “meat” and “salt” combined.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates salchicha to 1539, after the form salciza of 1490.^[2][3] The earliest hits in the CDH are poems of the late 16th century; one, before 1582, sets salchichas beside morcillas and longanizas among the foods made at a pig-killing.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 described it as a kind of sausage of chopped, salted and spiced meat, and named salchichón beside it.^[9] The 1739 Autoridades defined it as a narrow gut filled with lean and fat pork, seasoned with pepper, ginger, fennel and salt; it also recorded a military sense, a very long fascine used to bind the others.^[11] Terreros in 1793 added a third, a tube filled with gunpowder for firing a mine.^[12] The DLE keeps these military senses, and a fifth for the observation balloons of the French army in the war of 1914–1918.^[4]

In Honduras salchicha has meant a blood sausage, and in Puerto Rico a rambling speech or a muddle.^[13][14] Perro salchicha or plain salchicha is the dachshund, recorded in Quito and Cuba in 1989.^[15][3]

Timeline

• 1490 – the form salciza is recorded.^[2]
• 1539 – the first record of salchicha.^[2][3]
• before 1582 – salchichas appear beside morcillas and longanizas in a verse letter.^[10]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a sausage”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from chicha and sal.^[9]
• c. 1630 – the augmentative salchichón is first recorded.^[2]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the culinary and the military senses.^[11]
• 1797 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sausage of finely chopped lean and fat pork in a thin casing, seasoned with salt, pepper and other spices: Asamos unas salchichas en la barbacoa.^[4][1]
2. A similar sausage made with other ingredients; a hot dog.^[4][17][1]
3. (military) A very long fascine used to bind and cross the others.^[4][11]
4. (military, historical) A long, thin cloth tube filled with gunpowder, used to fire mines.^[4]
5. (military, historical) A dirigible balloon used by the French army in the First World War.^[4][17]
6. (vulgar, slang) The penis.^[1]

Word family

• salchichero
• salchichón

Related words

• sal
• salsa
• chicha
• Italian salsiccia
• French saucisse
• Latin salsus

Usage notes

Set phrases include salchicha de Frankfurt and perro salchicha “dachshund”.^[17][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. salchicha
3. ^ a b c d e f Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 702
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. salchicha
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. salchicha
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5857
9. ^ 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. 1279
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. salchicha
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 22
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, 422
13. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 58
14. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. salchicha
15. ^ 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. salchicha
16. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 210
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. salchicha