suela

Forms

suela f (plural suelas)^[1] Old Leonese had suella, from the classical form, and Asturian also says sola.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sola, the form that replaced classical solea (“sandal”).^[3][4][1][2] The DLE derives it directly from the classical word.^[5] Corominas notes that the Vulgar Latin form is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese sola, Galician sola, Occitan sola, French sole and Italian suola.^[3][1][6] Old Leonese suella continues the classical form, as do Portuguese solha and Galician solla, names of the plaice.^[2][3]

The Latin noun is derived from solum (“base, ground, sole of the foot”).^[7][8] Wiktionary traces this to *solom and *solom (“place, habitation”), with cognates in Balto-Slavic and Germanic; de Vaan finds the details of the vowel uncertain.^[1][8] Spanish suelo continues the base noun.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250, in a manuscript of the same period) speaks of las suelas de los pies, the soles of the feet.^[9] The Fuero de Cáceres (dated between 1234 and 1275) already uses it of shoes: shoemakers who cantearen las suelas are fined one maravedí.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Setenario describes shoes with wooden soles, like clogs, and in 1270 an ordinance names leather for soles beside heels.^[9] The word stood also for the leather itself: the Diccionario de Autoridades has the tanned ox-hide used for soles, citing a price list of 1680, and the flatfish called suela, the sole, lenguado, named for its shape.^[10] Covarrubias had already recorded the carpenters' use for the beam laid at the foot of a partition wall.^[11] The Academy's 1884 edition added the leather tip of a billiard cue and gave the etymology Del lat. soléa.^[12]

Expressions grew around the shoe sole: de tres or de cuatro suelas “strong, thorough”, and no llegar a la suela del zapato “to be far inferior to someone”, which Cervantes uses in the Quijote.^[13][14] In Chile suela is also a tap washer.^[15] Colloquially it is a thin, tough piece of meat.^[16]

Timeline

• 1221 – DEMel's first record, suelas in the Fuero de Plasencia (known from a copy of 1297).^[17]
• c. 1250 – the Lapidario has las suelas de los pies.^[9]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses the word: Corominas's first record (the BDELC gives 1335).^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives suela de çapato with Latin solea.^[18]
• 1599 – the diminutive soleta in the Guzmán de Alfarache.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the carpenters' sense.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the leather and the fish.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the billiard-cue tip and the Latin etymology.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sole of a shoe: the part that touches the ground, usually of strong tanned leather: Las suelas de estas botas ya están gastadas.^[5][1]
2. Tanned cowhide; sole leather.^[5][19]
3. The piece of leather glued to the tip of a billiard cue (billar).^[5]
4. The sole (fish), lenguado.^[5]
5. (architecture) A plinth (zócalo), the lower part of a building.^[5][19]
6. A beam laid under a partition wall to raise it.^[5]
7. (in the plural) The sandals (sandalias) of some religious orders.^[5]
8. (Chile) A washer of leather or rubber in a tap.^[15]

Word family

• soleta

Related words

• suelo
• lenguado
• Latin solea
• Portuguese sola

Usage notes

Media suela is a half sole used to mend shoes, and de siete suelas intensifies an adjective of mischief (un pícaro de siete suelas).^[5][19] The verb solar in the sense “to sole shoes” is derived from suela.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6205
3. ^ 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, 326
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suelo
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. suela
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 717
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. solea
8. ^ a b 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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. suela
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 176
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. 1310
12. ^ 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. 994
13. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1018
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1053
15. ^ 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. suela
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. suela
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. suela
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos