segur

Forms

segur f or m (plural segures)^[1] The Academy listed the old form segura from 1843.^[2] Salamanca has siguro, with a change of gender.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish segur, inherited from Latin secūris (“axe”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is derived from secō (“to cut”), the source of segar.^[5][7] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sekh₁- (“to cut off”).^[7] Wiktionary compares Proto-Slavic *sekyra (“axe”).^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese segure, Italian scure and Mozarabic xucur.^[3][8] Asturian segura is the butcher's cleaver, and Portuguese and Galician segura is a cooper's adze.^[4][9] Simonet cites several Arabic forms of the word from al-Andalus.^[3] The word also passed into the Arabic of the Maghreb and into Berber.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found the word in a charter of 1050 in Oelschläger's list of first records.^[4][5] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) tells the miracle of the axe head that fell into the water: A un omne cayo la segur en el agua “A man's axe fell into the water”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the segur was a common tool, listed in the fueros with the hoe and adze, and in the Poema de Fernán González among the tools of the peasants.^[10] Nebrija distinguished the axe for cutting, the double-bladed axe and the copper axe.^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 described the axes bundled in rods that the lictors carried before the Roman magistrates.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave three senses: a large axe, the lictors' emblem, and a sickle.^[14] In 1899 the Academy redefined the second sense as the axe that formed part of the fasces.^[15]

The word is now mainly literary: Vox counts it among the inherited words of the family of segar.^[16] In a Lima text of 1793 death cuts the laurels with its terrible segur.^[17]

Timeline

• 1050 – a charter, the first record.^[4][5]
• 1141–1235 – the Fuero de Madrid, in a Latin sentence: cutello aut segur.^[10]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[10][11]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[18]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin securis and bipennis.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the lictors' axes.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades also gives the sense “sickle”.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy defines the axe of the fasces.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large axe for cutting: El leñador alzó la segur sobre el tronco.^[6][19]
2. A sickle (hoz).^[6][19]
3. (history) The axe that formed part of each of the fasces of the Roman lictors.^[6][16]

Related words

• segar
• Latin secūris
• Portuguese segure

Usage notes

The DLE makes the word feminine;^[6][1][20] Wiktionary gives it as feminine or masculine, and Domínguez in 1846 treated it as masculine.^[6][1][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 660
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6017
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 190
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. segur
6. ^ 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. segur
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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7775
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. segura
10. ^ 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. segur
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. segur
12. ^ a b 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. segur
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1291
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 68
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 904
16. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. segur
17. ^ 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. segur
18. ^ 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. segur
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. segur
20. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1553