sudar

Forms

sudar (first-person singular present sudo, first-person singular preterite sudé, past participle sudado)^[1] Old Spanish also had suar, in Abraham of Toledo's Moamín (1250) and Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sūdāre (“to sweat”).^[4][5][1] Corominas calls it general at every period and common to all the western Romance languages.^[4]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese suar, Catalan suar, French suer, Occitan susar and Italian sudare.^[6][7] In his Catalan dictionary Corominas explains the forms as regular: Latin /d/ stayed in Italian, Spanish and Gascon, became /z/ in Occitan and was lost in French, Portuguese and Catalan.^[8] García de Diego takes a different view: for him the Spanish verb is a learned form, and the popular outcome is suar of Old and dialectal Spanish, which agrees with Portuguese, Galician and Catalan.^[7]

The Latin verb was probably formed from a noun *swoyd-o- (“sweat”), the source also of Old English swāt (“sweat”) and Old High German sweiz, from the root Proto-Indo-European *sweyd- (“to sweat”).^[9][1] The noun sūdor gave Spanish sudor.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Berceo.^[4] In the Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, known from an 18th-century copy) the verb already has a figurative turn: the two saints who help in battle did not want to take their pay for nothing, but primero la quisieron merecer e sudar “first wanted to earn it and sweat for it”.^[2][10] In the literal sense it appears in the Lapidario of Alfonso X, of a stone that makes the one who looks at it sweat.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1739) records the verb for sweating, for giving something up unwillingly, for toiling, and figuratively for trees and plants that exude drops of sap.^[11] The 1843 dictionary has the proverb lo que otro suda, a mí poco me dura, of cast-off clothes that soon wear out.^[12][13] The current dictionary also has damp things that let water through their pores, such as a wall or a porous jug, and the vulgar Spanish sudársela “not to care at all”.^[5][1]

In the Dominican Republic sudar a newborn is to hold it in one's arms so that it takes in warmth and, by popular belief, the holder's good qualities.^[14][15] In Judeo-Spanish the verb also means “to calm down” after a fit of anger or a long sulk.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán: merecer e sudar.^[2][4]
• 1250 – the Moamín has the form súen of Old Spanish suar.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – the Lapidario of Alfonso X uses suar.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario gives Latin sudo as its equivalent.^[17]
• 1536 – first record in the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[18]
• 1739 – Autoridades records the senses “give unwillingly” and “toil”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin sudare.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also transitive) To sweat, perspire: Subiendo la cuesta sudaba a chorros.^[5][1]
2. (of a tree, plant or fruit) To exude drops of its juice or sap.^[5][20]
3. (of something damp) To let water seep through its pores, as a wall or a porous jug does.^[5]
4. (colloquial) To toil, to work hard physically or mentally.^[5][21]
5. (transitive) To soak with sweat.^[5]
6. (colloquial, dated) To give something up against one's will.^[5][11]
7. (sudársela, vulgar, Spain) Not to care at all.^[5][1]
8. (Dominican Republic) To hold a newborn in one's arms to warm it.^[14]

Word family

• sudadero
• sudadera
• resudar
• trasudar
• sudársela

Related words

• sudario
• sudor
• exudar
• Latin sūdor
• Portuguese suar

Usage notes

Set phrases include sudar tinta and sudar la gota gorda “to sweat blood”.^[1][20] A Judeo-Spanish proverb holds that sweating is less worrying than sneezing: by folk medicine a sudden fever was a lesser evil than an unusual sneeze.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sudar
3. ^ 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. sudar
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 325
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. sudar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8431
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6451
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. 8, 127
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. sūdor
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 733
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 174
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 679
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 726
14. ^ 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. sudar
15. ^ 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. sudar
16. ^ a b Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. sudar
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 419
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. sudar
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 994
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sudar
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sudar