son

Forms

son m (plural sones)^[1] Berceo has the plural sonos beside son;^[2] son is the general form from the Libro de Apolonio, Juan Ruiz and Don Juan Manuel on.^[2] The inherited form sueno occurs now and then in the Middle Ages, in the General estoria, the Primera crónica general, Juan Ruiz and Don Juan Manuel.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan son, a term of troubadour music, from Latin sonus (“sound”).^[2][4][5] The DLE gives only the Latin word.^[6] Corominas notes that it could be a back-formation from Spanish sonar, but then a form with a diphthong would be expected, like the inherited sueno of some medieval texts.^[2] Wiktionary gives the same two explanations, the Occitan one first.^[1]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese som, Galician son, Catalan so, French son and Italian suono.^[7][8][1] The Latin noun is formed from sonō (“to sound”); de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *swenos (“sound”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1220–1250) son means music or a melody, and the plural sonos occurs too.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish had sonido, a semi-learned word from Latin sonitus, for sound and noise, and son kept the sense of a pleasant or musical sound.^[4][10] Covarrubias in 1611 said that son properly answers to musical harmony and sonido to any sound, and cites bailar al son of instruments.^[11] Autoridades added the senses “news, fame” and, in thieves' cant, “be quiet!”, which Juan Hidalgo had recorded in 1609.^[12][13] It also recorded bailar al son que se toca, to adapt oneself to others' ways.^[12]

The Academy's 1817 edition lists the sense “tenor, manner” (a este son), and its 1884 edition adds “pretext”.^[14][15] Phrases include en son de “in the manner of, with the intention of”, sin ton ni son “without rhyme or reason” and ¿a son de qué? “why on earth?”.^[16][10][6] In the Americas son became the name of popular dance music: the Cuban son of African origin, and other popular dances in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and Colombia.^[17][18][19]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses son and sonos for music.^[2][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives son o sonido as Latin sonus.^[20]
• 1546 – first record from the Americas, in Oviedo's history from Santo Domingo.^[21]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it as “a sound”.^[22]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records the cant use for “be quiet”.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias contrasts son with sonido.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “pretext”.^[15]
• 1921 – Suárez describes the Cuban dance.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pleasant sound, especially a musical one: Se oía el son de una flauta.^[6][1][16]
2. News or rumour of something.^[6][16]
3. A pretext.^[6][16]
4. Manner, way: a este son “in this way”.^[6]
5. (music) The son, a popular Afro-Cuban dance music, and a piece in this style; in Mexico and the Caribbean also the dance.^[6][17][1]

Word family

• sonsonete

Related words

• sonar
• sonido
• soneto
• sonata
• Latin sonus

Usage notes

Son is also the third person plural present of ser “they are”, the form the CDH's earliest hits contain, as in a 1202 text: Aquellas cosas que en este presente son fechas “those things that are done at this present”.^[23] An old conjunction son “but, except”, a variant of sino, is recorded by Salvá and Román.^[24][25][2]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 302
3. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 397
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sonar
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 721
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. son
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8090
8. ^ 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. 7, 964
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. son
11. ^ 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. 1306
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 150
13. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 199
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 812
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 988
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. son
17. ^ 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. son
18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 98
19. ^ a b Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 480
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 418
21. ^ 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. son
22. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 216
23. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. son
24. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1011
25. ^ 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. 316