sangre

Forms

sangre f (plural sangres)^[1] Old Spanish also had the older form sangne, closer to Latin, in the Fuero de Avilés and in Berceo.^[2][3] The Poema de Fernán González once spells it sangrue, which Corominas takes to be a mere spelling.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sanguis (“blood”), which passed through the older Spanish form sangne.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary explains the change of /n/ to /ɾ/ as a dissimilation of the two nasal consonants that met in that form.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese sangue, Galician sangue, Asturian sangre, Catalan sang, Occitan sang, French sang, Italian sangue and Romanian sânge.^[5][1] The Latin word was masculine in the classical language, and it is still masculine in Portuguese, French, Italian, Sardinian, Engadine and Romanian; archaic authors, however, used a neuter sanguen, and Corominas derives from it the feminine gender of Castilian, Catalan, southern Occitan and some old Italian dialects.^[2][6] The masculine gender occurs only sporadically in Old Spanish, once in Berceo and in a few texts of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.^[2] Wiktionary calls the reason for the change of gender unclear.^[1]

De Vaan reconstructs *sangwen- and traces at least the first syllable to the oblique stem of the Proto-Indo-European word for blood, *h₁ésh₂r̥, genitive *h₁sh₂-én-s; the rest of the word is less certain.^[7][1] It is disputed which of the two Latin forms is the older.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in the scene of the blind Longinus, whose spear draws blood from Christ's side: „dont ixió la sangre” “whence the blood came out”.^[8][3] Menéndez Pidal lists it in the Cid's vocabulary with the phrase la sangre destellando “the blood dripping”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already used sangre for the liquid, for lineage or kinship (“she was of the highest blood of Greece”) and, in the plural, for bloodshed.^[10] Autoridades (1739) gives the liquid, lineage, and by metonymy anything gained by someone's toil, la sangre y sudor de los pobres.^[11] The Academy's 19th-century editions add “wound”, from duels fought to the first, second or third blood, and “substance, wealth” in chupar la sangre “to bleed someone dry”.^[12][13] Its 1884 edition was the first to give the etymology, “Del lat. sanguis”.^[14]

Today the DLE defines the liquid, lineage and a person's character or temperament (buena sangre, mala sangre).^[4] In Lima ser de sangre ligera means to be likeable, and in Chile liviano and pesado de sangre describe a pleasant or a tiresome person.^[15][16] In Argentina, Chile and Puerto Rico hacerse mala sangre means to fret.^[17] The old cant of the 17th century used sangre for “money”.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (14th-century copy) uses sangre.^[8][3]
• 1155 – the older form sangne appears in the Fuero de Avilés.^[3][2]
• c. 1230–1250 – Berceo still writes sangne in the Sacrificio de la misa, but sangre elsewhere.^[2]
• 1250–1280 – Alfonso X's prose uses the word for the liquid, for lineage and for bloodshed.^[10]
• 1335 – first record of the verb sangrar and of sangría.^[3]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, sangre de dragón in Puerto Rico.^[19]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as the red humour of the arteries and veins, and also as lineage.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. blood: the fluid, usually red, that circulates through the arteries and veins of animals, carrying oxygen and nutrients to the cells.^[4][1]
2. lineage, kinship: Es de mi misma sangre.^[4][20]
3. Character or temperament, as in buena sangre “good nature” and mala sangre “ill will”.^[4][20]
4. (Puerto Rico, El Salvador, slang) A cigarette.^[21]

Word family

• sangrar
• sangría
• sangriento
• sangrón
• desangrar
• sangraza
• ensangrentar

Related words

• sanguíneo
• sanguinario
• consanguíneo
• sanguijuela
• Latin sanguis
• Portuguese sangue

Usage notes

Set phrases include sangre fría “composure”, a sangre fría “in cold blood”, sangre azul “noble lineage” and sangre de drago or de dragón, the red resin of the dragon tree.^[20][22] Judeo-Spanish keeps the word with its old phrases, as korrer sangre “to bleed”.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 151
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sangre
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. sangre
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7574
6. ^ 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, 652
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. sangre
9. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 433
10. ^ 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. sangre
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 38
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 784
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 654
14. ^ 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. 957
15. ^ Arona, Juan de [Pedro Paz Soldán y Unanue] (1883), Diccionario de peruanismos, Lima: J. Francisco Solís, p. 453
16. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 199
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 733
18. ^ Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 198
19. ^ 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. sangre
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sangre
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sangre
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 699
23. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. sangre