sorber

Forms

sorber (first-person singular present sorbo, first-person singular preterite sorbí, past participle sorbido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sorber, inherited from Latin sorbeō (“to drink, suck up, swallow”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that it has been in general use at every period.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese sorver, Galician sorber, Catalan sorbir, Occitan sorbir, Italian sorbire and Romanian sorbi.^[5][6][1] According to Corominas it survives in popular speech in every Romance language except French, Catalan and Occitan, where only old traces remain; in Old Catalan the verb already belonged to biblical, religious and legendary style.^[2][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *sorβeō, an iterative Proto-Indo-European *srobʰéyeti of the root *srebʰ- (“to sip”).^[1][8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ῥοφέω (rhophéō, “to slurp, gulp”), Lithuanian srėbti (“to eat liquid food with a spoon”) and Hittite šarāp- (“to sip”).^[8] De Vaan explains the Latin vowel as a zero grade or as taken over from other iterative verbs, and notes that the shape of the root may be due to sound symbolism.^[8] Corominas adds that the etymology does not show whether the Latin vowel was short or long, so that the stressed forms of the Spanish verb cannot be settled from it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH, La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), uses the verb for the earth swallowing up the rebels: abriós la tierra de yus d'elos e sorbiólos vivos “the earth opened beneath them and swallowed them alive”.^[9] The same image of the earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram recurs in the legal texts of the 13th century.^[9][10] Corominas dates the first record about 1400, in the Glosario de Toledo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb both for swallowing up and, by the 1270s, for drinking by sucking in.^[10][9] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defined it as drawing a liquid into the mouth with the breath, especially broth, and recorded two extended senses: drawing in things that are not liquid, such as snuff, and a hollow or spongy thing taking another inside it.^[11] Terreros added the senses “to use up, ruin” and the phrase sorber los mocos “to sniff back mucus”.^[12] Domínguez (1846) recorded sorber o sorberse los vientos por algo “to long desperately for something”.^[13] The DLE now lists the nasal sense on its own, and a figurative one in which the mind eagerly takes hold of a desire.^[4]

The verb is recorded in the Americas from 1545, in the Río de la Plata.^[14]

Timeline

• 1192 – DEMel lists the form sorbe in two Leonese documents.^[15]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy): the earth swallows the rebels alive.^[9]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (early 15th-century copy) has sorver.^[9]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for drinking by sucking in.^[10]
• c. 1400 – Corominas's first record, in the Glosario de Toledo.^[2]
• c. 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia already has the undiphthongised yo sorbo.^[2]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives sorver with Latin sorbeo and the derivative sorvible.^[16]
• 1545 – the first record from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata.^[14]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the drinking sense and its extensions.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. sorbēre”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sip, drink by sucking in: Sorbía la sopa haciendo ruido.^[4][18][1]
2. To sniff back mucus.^[4][19]
3. To draw in something that is not liquid.^[4]
4. Of a hollow or spongy thing: to take in, soak up.^[4][18][1]
5. To swallow up, engulf: El remolino sorbió la barca.^[4][1]
6. Of the mind: to seize eagerly on a desire.^[4]

Word family

• sorbo
• sorbible

Related words

• absorbente
• absorción
• adsorción
• absorto
• Portuguese sorver

Usage notes

The verb is regular: sorbo, sorbes.^[20][21] The diphthongised suerbo is heard in Cespedosa and parts of the Americas;^[20][21][22] Cuervo and the Chilean purists Román and Rodríguez condemned it, pointing to the noun sorbo and to absorbo, which no one says with a diphthong.^{[2][20][21][22]} The proverb soplar y sorber, no puede ser says that two incompatible things cannot be done at once.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 309
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sorber
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. sorber
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6231
7. ^ 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. 8, 78
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
10. ^ a b c 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. sorber
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 158
12. ^ 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, 530
13. ^ 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, 1586
14. ^ 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. sorbar
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
16. ^ 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
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 990
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sorber
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sorber
20. ^ a b c Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 245
21. ^ a b c 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. 322
22. ^ a b Rodríguez, Zorobabel (1875), Diccionario de chilenismos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente, p. 440