silbar

Forms

silbar (first-person singular present silbo, first-person singular preterite silbé, past participle silbado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote silvar (so still Nebrija) and also had siblar, the form of the General Estoria.^[2][3][4] Asturian and the Leonese of Babia say xiblar, Salamanca jibrar.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish silvar, inherited from Latin sībilō (“to hiss, whistle”).^[2][6][7][1] The Latin /i/ after the stress was lost and /b/ and /l/ changed places, so that Old Spanish siblar became the modern form.^[1][8] The same Latin verb is Portuguese silvar, Catalan xiular (Old Catalan siular), Asturian xiblar and Galician xiprar.^[9][5][10] With a rounded vowel it gave Portuguese assobiar.^[2]

The Latin verb was formed from sībilus (“a hiss”).^[11][1] Corominas takes it to come from an imitative form sīfilō, which became the classical form by the regular Latin sound laws; the form with /f/ survived in vulgar Latin, as Nonius and the glosses show, because it was more expressive.^[2][12] From it come French siffler, Italian zufolare and Spanish chiflar, which Wiktionary calls a doublet of the word.^[2][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first reliable record is in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy), of serpents: Silvan por las riberas muchas malas sirpientes “many evil serpents hiss along the banks”.^[13][4] The DHLE dates its first record about 1223, in the Semejanza del mundo, also for the sound an animal makes.^[14] The sense of a person whistling through the lips first appears before 1284, in the fifth part of the General Estoria.^[14] Corominas's first record was Juan Ruiz.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Libro de buen amor an old greyhound complains that his master no longer cares for him: quando nol trayo nada nom falaga nim sylva “when I bring him nothing he neither pats me nor whistles to me”.^[2] In the 16th century the verb began to be used of things that whistle as they move through the air and of the wind.^[14][15] The Diccionario de Autoridades recorded three senses: to whistle; to show disapproval, as the audience did at plays; and to make the air whistle by a violent movement.^[16] Terreros added the noise of the wind, a bullet or an arrow.^[17] The noun silba “booing” entered the Academy's dictionary only in 1884.^[2]

The Vulgar Latin variant with /f/ survives beside it in chiflar, which meant “to whistle” from the 15th to the 17th century, then “to mock” (1589), and chiflarse “to go mad” in the 19th century.^[6][2] In Honduras silbar also means to give off a bad smell.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the DHLE's first record, of an animal, in the Semejanza del mundo.^[14]
• 1240–1250 – silvan of serpents in the Libro de Alexandre.^[13]
• 1280 – the fourth part of the General Estoria has siblauan, of serpents.^[3]
• before 1284 – the fifth part of the General Estoria uses it for a person whistling.^[14]
• c. 1295 – the noun sivlo, later silbo, in the Primera crónica general.^[6][2]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses sylva; this is Corominas's first record.^[2][6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija enters silvar, silbo and silbador.^[2][6]
• 1541 – the word is recorded in Michoacán, of an eagle.^[15]
• 1611 – silbato “whistle” is first recorded, in Covarrubias.^[6][2]
• 1884 – silba enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also transitive) To whistle: Mi abuelo silbaba una canción mientras pintaba la verja.^[7][19][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a thing: to make a whistling sound by moving through the air: El viento silbaba entre las rocas.^[7][19]
3. (intransitive, also transitive) Of an audience: to show disapproval by whistling or other noise; to boo: Los aficionados silbaron al árbitro al final.^[7][19]
4. (Honduras) To give off a bad smell.^[18]

Word family

• silba
• silbante
• silbato
• silbido
• silbador
• silbo

Related words

• chiflar
• sibilante
• Latin sībilō
• Portuguese silvar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 245
3. ^ 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. silbar
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. silbar
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6109
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. silbar
7. ^ a b c d 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. silbar
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. silbar
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7890
10. ^ 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. 9, 563
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ 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. silbar
14. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. silbar
15. ^ 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. silbar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6
17. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 490
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. silbar
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. silbar