sucio

Forms

sucio (feminine sucia, masculine plural sucios, feminine plural sucias)^[1] Old Spanish wrote suzio with a voiced /dz/ until Nebrija; texts also have susio and suzia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish suzio, inherited from Latin sūcidus (“juicy, moist”).^[2][4][5][1] In Latin the word meant only “moist”, but classical writers used it especially of newly shorn wool, not yet washed and still damp with the sheep's sweat.^[2][4][6] From this use the Romance sense “dirty” grew.^[2][4] A Latin–Greek glossary already renders the adjective by Ancient Greek ἄπλυτον (áplyton, “unwashed”).^[2] The ending developed as in limpio from limpidus.^[1]

The word survives with the same sense in Italy, Raetia, Occitania, Catalonia and Portugal: Portuguese sujo, Old Catalan sutze, Old Occitan sotz and Italian sudicio.^[2][7][8] Catalan sutza and French surge keep only the use for unwashed wool.^[2] Judaeo-Spanish has Ladino suzio.^[1]

The Latin adjective is formed from sūcus (“juice, sap”).^[6][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *soukos and Proto-Indo-European *souḱ-o- (“juice”), of the same root as the verb for “to suck” in sūgō and the English word suck.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) already has the modern sense: one who hid behind the beam of a wine press in great fear el manto e el brial todo suzio lo sacó “brought out his cloak and tunic all soiled”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Berceo and Juan Ruiz use the word in the same way.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario still speaks of lana suzia “unwashed wool”, and also uses the word for obscene acts; the Estoria de España applies it to impure customs.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives “disgusting, filthy”, “stained with sins” and “indecent, obscene”.^[11] Terreros records el Sucio as a name for the devil.^[12]

Salvá in 1846 recorded jugar sucio in billiards, and Domínguez nautical uses for a sea bottom with rocks and an overcast sky.^[13][14] The Academy's 1899 dictionary added the sense “with damage, infection or impurity”, as in lazareto sucio.^[15] The DLE now also gives “contrary to law or ethics”, as in guerra sucia “dirty war”, and the adverb “against the rules”, as in jugar sucio.^[5] In much of Spanish America un sucio is a stain.^[16][17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – suzio in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][4]
• 1220–1250 – the noun suciedad.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has lana suzia.^[10]
• mid-13th century – the verb ensuciar.^[4]
• 1535 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: one who is not clean in his person.^[19]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records el Sucio “the devil”.^[12]
• 1846 – Salvá records jugar sucio in billiards.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin succidus.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dirty, filthy: having stains or impurities: Tenía las manos sucias.^[5][1]
2. That gets dirty easily: El blanco es un color sucio para un sofá.^[5][20]
3. That makes things dirty: un perro muy sucio.^[5]
4. Dishonest; obscene in deeds or words.^[5][1]
5. Of a colour: dull, darkened.^[5]
6. Damaged, infected, imperfect or impure.^[5]
7. Contrary to the law or to ethics: dinero sucio, guerra sucia.^[5][1]

Adverb

1. Without keeping to the rules of a game: jugar sucio.^[5][1]

Noun

1. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Bolivia) A stain, a mark of dirt.^[16]

Word family

• suciedad
• ensuciar
• suciamente

Related words

• jugoso
• suculento
• Latin sūcidus
• Portuguese sujo

Usage notes

En sucio means “in rough draft”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 324
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sucio
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sucio
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. sucio
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sūcidus
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. sūcidus
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3175
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 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. sucio
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, s.v. sucio
12. ^ a b 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, 543
13. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1018
14. ^ 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, 1591
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 932
16. ^ 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. sucio
17. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. sucio
18. ^ 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. sucio
19. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1312
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sucio