saturar

Forms

saturar (first-person singular present saturo, first-person singular preterite saturé, past participle saturado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin saturō (“to fill, satiate”), a learned word.^[2][1][3] The Latin verb is formed from satur (“well-fed, full”), which belongs to the family of satis (“enough”).^[4][3][5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *saturo- (“well-fed”) and Proto-Indo-European *s(e)h₂-tu- (“satiation”);^[5][1] Wiktionary gives the root *seh₂- (“to satiate”).^[5][1] The feminine of the adjective seems to underlie satura (“a dish of mixed foods; satire”).^[3] saciedad, saciar and asaz belong to the same family.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso Gómez de Zamora's Morales de Ovidio (before 1452) explains the gerund saturando as fartando “filling”.^[7] Teresa de Cartagena's Admiración operum Dei (after 1450) glosses the word: it is no less a miracle de pocos panes saturar o hartar muchos omnes “to fill or feed many men with few loaves”.^[7] Corominas dated the verb only from the beginning of the 18th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Writers of the 15th century used it of filling with food, often with an explanation, and connected it with the name of Saturn.^[7] Autoridades (1739) notes that this strict sense was no longer used, but that physicians used it for one thing filling and penetrating another.^[8] From 1817 the Academy gives the chemical sense, dissolving in a liquid all of a substance that it can take, and marks the sense “fill with food” as old; it is recorded in Peru in 1793.^[9][10][11] In 1855 Baralt objected to the figurative use, as in saturar la curiosidad del público, as an imitation of French.^[12] Today the DLE gives the senses “fill to excess”, “satiate” and technical senses in physics and chemistry.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1452 – Alfonso Gómez de Zamora's Morales de Ovidio glosses saturando as “filling”.^[7]
• after 1450 – Teresa de Cartagena uses saturar o hartar.^[7]
• 1739 – Autoridades enters it as a word of physicians.^[8]
• 1793 – the chemical sense in a Peruvian text.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy gives the chemical sense first.^[9]
• 1855 – Baralt censures the figurative use as a Gallicism.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill something to the limit or beyond; also figurative and reflexive: Los visitantes saturaron el museo.^[2][13]
2. To satiate (saciar), to satisfy hunger and thirst.^[2]
3. (physics) To increase the input of a system until its effect stops increasing.^[2][14]
4. (chemistry) To add a substance to a solvent until it takes no more; to combine bodies in the highest proportions in which they can unite.^[2][13]

Word family

• saturación
• saturado
• saturable

Related words

• saciedad
• saciar
• sátira
• Latin satur

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. saturar
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. asaz
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 370
7. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. saturar
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 788
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 657
11. ^ 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. saturar
12. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. s.v. saturar
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saturar
14. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. saturar