sartén

Forms

sartén m or f same meaning (plural sartenes)^[1] Aragonese had sartán, frequent in old inventories (1362, 1402), with the diminutive sartaneta (1330), and DEMel lists sartan in a document of 1198 and sarteynes c. 1260.^[2][3] García de Diego records sartana in Castilian, Aragonese and Galician, and Basque has zartagin and zartain.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sartén, inherited from Latin sartāgō (“frying pan”).^[2][5][6] Wiktionary starts from the accusative Late Latin sartāginem.^[1] The Latin ending /-aɡin-/ became /-en/ in Castilian and /-an/ in Aragonese.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese sertã, Galician sartaña, Asturian sartén, Aragonese sartana and Old Occitan sartan.^[4][7][8][1] Most other Romance languages replaced it with descendants of patella, the source of padilla and of paella, a Catalanism.^[2]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1] The OLD suggests a link with sarciō (“to patch, mend”), and Gómez de Silva follows it.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a mid-14th-century copy) is the first record: the king orders food to be bought, fires lit and sartenes e calderas made ready.^[11][2] The BDELC dates this text c. 1200, Corominas's DCECH to the middle of the 13th century.^[5][2] The first record without a later copy is a testament of 1271 that lists sartenes among household goods.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Juan Ruiz arms Don Carnal's troops with calderas, sartenes e cozinas as shields.^[2] The word has kept its sense in every period, and Nebrija gives it as sartén para freír.^[2] The DLE also uses it for the amount fried at one time.^[6] The Academy's 1899 edition lists the proverbs Cuando la sartén chilla, algo hay en la villa and Dijo la sartén a la caldera…, the pot calling the kettle black.^[12] Judeo-Spanish has the same proverb.^[13]

The word is feminine in the classical authors, but it is masculine in Argentina and much of America, and in Asturias.^[2] Corominas explains the change by the article, as with la yunque, which became el yunque through l’ayunque, and notes that Fernández de Oviedo wrote el asartén.^[2] The DLE notes the masculine in many places in America and Spain.^[6] In Honduras sartén is a glazed pot with handles, and in Zacatecas a washbasin.^[14]

Timeline

• 1198 – DEMel lists the Aragonese form sartan in a document.^[3]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio has sartenes.^[11][2]
• 1271 – a testament lists sartenes among household goods.^[11]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor has sartenes.^[2]
• 1362 – an Aragonese inventory has una sartán quebrada.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses sartén para freír with Latin sartago.^[2][15]
• 1516 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[16]
• 1599 – Mateo Alemán's Guzmán de Alfarache has the derivative sartenazo.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A frying pan: a round, shallow kitchen pan with a long handle, used mainly for frying.^[6][1]
2. The amount fried at one time in a frying pan.^[6]

Word family

• sartenada
• sartenazo

Related words

• Latin sartāgō
• Portuguese sertã
• Asturian sartén

Usage notes

Sartén is feminine in Spain, but in many parts of America and Spain it is masculine.^[6][17] Tener la sartén por el mango means to be in control of the situation.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 172
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sartén
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sartago
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sartén
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. sartén
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. sartago
8. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. sartén
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sartāgō
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 633
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sartén
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 900
13. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. sartén
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 735
15. ^ 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, p. s.v. sartén
16. ^ 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. sartén
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sartén