seco

Forms

seco (feminine seca, masculine plural secos, feminine plural secas, superlative sequísimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin siccus (“dry”), with the same form in Old Spanish seco.^[2][3][4][1] The word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese seco, Galician seco, Asturian secu, Catalan sec, Occitan sec, French sec, Italian secco and Romanian sec.^[2][5][6][1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[7] Wiktionary and de Vaan relate it to Proto-Italic *siskʷos and Proto-Indo-European *siskus (“dry”), whose cognates include Ancient Greek ἰσχνός (iskhnós, “dry, lean”) and Middle Irish sesc (“dry, barren”), perhaps from a root *sek- (“to dry up”); de Vaan adds that it is unclear how such a form would give the Latin word, so the etymology must remain uncertain.^[7][1] An older view connects it with *seykʷ- (“to pour, flow”), as if “drained of water”; de Vaan finds this awkward in meaning and form, while Gómez de Silva follows it.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the word in Berceo, and earlier as a personal name in charters from 905 on.^[2] The Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos asks Xugo del fuste seco, ¿qui lo podrié sacar?, “who could get sap out of dry wood?”^[2] The DEMel lists earlier forms in the Mozarabic documents of Toledo of the 12th century and in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the main senses: without moisture, without water, without greenness, and of plants, dead.^[10] The feminine seca was used as a noun for “drought” from Berceo on.^[2][3] Corominas explains jugar a seco, found in 1276, as gambling for money alone, as against playing for wine.^[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades has dry ground, withered plants and dried fruit such as nuts, figs and raisins.^[11] The figurative senses entered the Academy's dictionary in the 19th century: lean or thin, of weather without rain, poor or barren, and of a subject, dull.^[12] Then came harsh or curt in manner, and in the mystical sense lacking fervour, and in 1869 strict, as in justicia seca.^[13][14] Of wine and spirits it means not sweet, or unmixed.^[15]

The noun seco has many uses in the Americas: the main course of a meal in Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, a stew in Peru and Ecuador, a punch in Argentina, a sugarcane spirit in Panama.^[16] It is also a blow of one spinning top against another.^[17][18] In Cuba and Venezuela a seco person is one who has not drunk alcohol.^[16] In Puerto Rico under Spanish rule the secos were the supporters of autonomy, as in Fernández Juncos's Secos y mojados of 1890.^[19][20]

Timeline

• 905 – the word appears as a personal name in charters.^[2]
• 12th century – forms in the Mozarabic documents of Toledo.^[9]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses it for dry wood, the first record of the adjective in a Spanish text.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for dry powder.^[10]
• 1276 – the phrase jugar a seco in the Ordenamiento de las Tafurerías.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin aridus and siccus.^[21]
• 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, where ships almost touch dry ground at low tide.^[22]
• 1843 – the Academy adds “harsh, unfriendly” in manner.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy adds “strict”, as in justicia seca.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin siccus.^[23]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dry: without water or other liquid: Ya está seca la ropa.^[4][1]
2. Of a spring, stream, river or lake: dried up.^[4]
3. Of a dish or food: without broth or juice: arroz seco.^[4]
4. Of fruit: with a hard shell and no juice, as nuts; also dried to keep: higos secos.^[4]
5. Of hair or skin: lacking oil or moisture.^[4]
6. Of a plant or part of it: dead.^[4]
7. Of weather, a place or a climate: with little rain or humidity; arid.^[4]
8. Of a person or animal: very thin, lean.^[4]
9. Of a person: curt, unfriendly.^[4]
10. Strict, rigorous.^[4]
11. Of wine or spirits: not sweet; unmixed.^[15]
12. (Cuba, Venezuela) Not having drunk alcohol; of a party, without alcohol.^[16]

Noun

1. (Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia) The main course of a meal.^[16]
2. (Peru, Ecuador) A stew of meat or fish served with rice.^[16]
3. (Argentina) A punch with the fist.^[16][2]

Word family

• secano
• secar
• sequedad
• sequero
• sequía
• desecar
• resecar
• reseco
• secarrón
• secura

Related words

• Latin siccus
• Portuguese seco

Usage notes

A secas means “only, with nothing else”, and en seco “out of the water” and “suddenly”.^[4] Dejar seco or quedar seco is to kill or be killed on the spot.^[24]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 185
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seco
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. seco
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6117
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. seco
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. seco
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. seco
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 59
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 790
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 658
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 704
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seco
16. ^ a b c d e f Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. seco
17. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 76
18. ^ 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. 225
19. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. seco
20. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 307
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 414
22. ^ 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. seco
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 962
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 902