sollozo

Forms

sollozo m (plural sollozos)^[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin suggluttium (“sob”), a form of the glossaries, which altered classical singultus (“sob, hiccup”) as if it were a derivative of gluttiō (“to swallow”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas prefers the noun as the starting point;^[5] Meyer-Lübke and García de Diego start from the verb *suggluttiare, from which sollozar comes.^[2][5] The cluster -ggl- became /ʎ/, as in hallar from afflare and in resollar.^[2] The learned doublet is singulto, from 1444.^[3][1]

The same glossary form is Portuguese soluço, Galician salouco and Romanian sughiț; Italian singhiozzo, Asturian sollutu, French sanglot and Catalan sanglot stand closer to the classical type.^[2][1][6]

De Vaan finds no clear source for the classical noun; it has been compared with Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”), or with *sengʷ- (“to sink”).^[7] Bénaben calls the Latin word expressive.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is the Moamín (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century), where animals with a breathing illness an solloço “have a catching of the breath”.^[9][10] The Lapidario of Alfonso X prescribes a stone in drink for al que a solloço, someone who is gasping or hiccuping.^[11][9] The General estoria (c. 1275) has it in the modern sense: a parent could hardly say farewell for the many and great sobs.^[9] Corominas, with less material, dated it to glossaries of about 1400.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant both a sob and a hiccup, and the earliest Spanish records include the second.^[12][9] The DCECH records the Aragonese spelling zollozo in the glossaries, and the cross of zollozar with hipar and hipo produced zollipo (early 17th century) and zollipar (1739).^[2][3] Autoridades described it at length as an interrupted moan from a compressed diaphragm, like a hiccup but coming before or after weeping, and reported Covarrubias's view that the word imitated the sound.^[13] The Academy shortened this to “a kind of interrupted moan” in 1843, and since 1884 has defined it as the act or effect of sollozar.^[14][15][4] The 1899 edition derived it from Italian singhiozzo, which the later editions replaced with the Vulgar Latin etymon.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1250 – solloço in the Moamín.^[9]
• c. 1250 – the Lapidario of Alfonso X.^[11]
• c. 1275 – muchos solloços “many sobs” in the General estoria.^[9]
• c. 1350 – çolloços in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, the first record with no later copy.^[9]
• c. 1400 – the glossaries of El Escorial and Toledo translate Latin singultus.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: solloço en el lloro, Latin singultus.^[18]
• 1533 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sob: each of the sudden, broken intakes of breath that come with crying; in the plural, sobbing: Se oían sus sollozos desde el pasillo.^[4][20][1]

Word family

• sollozar
• zollipo

Related words

• singulto
• hipo
• Latin singultus
• Portuguese soluço
• French sanglot

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 297
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sollozo
4. ^ a b c 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. sollozo
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6152
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sanglot
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sollozo
9. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sollozo
10. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. sollozo
11. ^ 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. sollozo
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 144
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 675
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 987
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 925
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. sollozo
18. ^ 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. sollozo
19. ^ 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. sollozo
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sollozo