suelto

Forms

suelto (feminine suelta, masculine plural sueltos, feminine plural sueltas)^[1] DEMel records the Old Spanish forms suelto, suelta, sueltos, sueltas and the undiphthongised soltos, solta and soltas.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish suelto, inherited from Vulgar Latin *soltus, from Latin solūtus (“loosened, unbound, free”), the past participle of solvō (“to loosen, release”).^[1][3][4] The Academy starts instead from a Vulgar Latin *solŭtus with a short vowel in place of the classical long one.^[5] Wiktionary and García de Diego give the reduced form.^[1][3] Lanchetas already noted that the word continues the Latin participle rather than being made from the verb derived from it, which implies a Vulgar Latin form without the middle vowel.^[6]

At first the word was only the past participle of Old Spanish solver (“to loosen”), which continues the same Latin verb.^[4][7] When that verb fell out of use, the participle remained as an adjective of its own.^[4][7] The verb soltar, also found in the Cid, was formed from the adjective and soon replaced the older verb.^[4][7]

The same participle survives in Portuguese solto, Galician solto and Catalan solt,^[3] and in Italian solto.^[1] The learned doublet is soluto.^[1] De Vaan explains the Latin verb as a compound of a prefix meaning “away” and luō (“to loosen”).^[8] The long vowel of its participle may go back to the Indo-European participle or follow the usual Latin pattern.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140), still as the participle of solver, “loosened, set free”.^[4][7] In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) a woman's figure is described with her hair loose, con sus cabellos sueltos.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From “untied, released” the adjective spread to things not held or joined together and to people free in their movements.^[10][11] Nebrija (1513) defines it as “a thing not tied”, Latin solutus, and Percyvall (1591) gives “loose, free, nimble, quick”.^[12][10] The Diccionario de Autoridades lists, besides the participle, the senses “light, swift”, “agile, skilful” and “free, bold, little restrained”, with quotations from Ercilla and Boscán.^[11] The word could still serve as a short participle of soltar, as in Mateo Alemán's fue suelto de la cárcel “he was released from prison”.^[4] In the Americas a 1532 letter from Mexico speaks of the six most sueltos y ligeros companions.^[13]

By 1817 the Academy also recorded verso suelto “blank verse”, an old sense “unmarried” (the sense of soltero, which itself first meant “loose”) and a mining noun for a lump of ore broken off by water or wind.^[14][4] Salvá (1846) is the first to record the noun “small change” (no tengo suelto), which the Academy described in 1884.^[15][16] Alemany (1917) records the noun for a short item in a newspaper, shorter than an article but more than a brief notice.^[17] Today the Academy also gives the colloquial senses “having diarrhoea” and, of a dance, “danced without partners holding each other”.^[5]

Regional uses include suelto de cuerpo “uninhibited” in the Andean countries and the Río de la Plata, and in the Dominican Republic a cockfight not officially arranged.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 1131 – DEMel's first record of the form soltos, in the Fuero de Calatayud.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses suelto as the participle of solver;^[9] soltar appears in the same poem.^[4][7]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of loose hair, cabellos sueltos.^[9]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin solutus.^[12]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico, in the sense “nimble”.^[13]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades lists the senses “swift”, “agile” and “free, bold”.^[11]
• 1846 – Salvá records the noun “small change”.^[15]
• 1917 – Alemany records the noun for a short newspaper item.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not fastened, tied or held; loose, free: Dejaron los caballos sueltos en el prado.^[5][1]
2. Not compact; separated into grains or particles: La quinoa ha salido muy suelta.^[5]
3. Separate from the set or series it belongs to: Solo me faltan dos tomos sueltos de la enciclopedia.^[5][1]
4. Of money, in small coins; also as a noun: ¿Llevas monedas sueltas para el café?^[5][1]
5. Of clothing, loose-fitting, wide.^[5]
6. Sold unpackaged, not in a box or packet.^[5]
7. Free and easy, uninhibited in manner.^[5][1]
8. Agile or skilful in what one does.^[5][1]
9. Of language or style, easy and fluent; of a sentence or clause, flowing.^[5]
10. (colloquial) Having diarrhoea.^[5]
11. (colloquial) Of a dance, danced without partners holding each other.^[5]
12. (obsolete) Light, swift.^[5]

Noun

1. Loose change, small coins: No tengo suelto para el autobús.^[5][1]
2. A short item in a newspaper, shorter and less important than an article but more than a brief notice.^[5]

Word family

• soltar
• soltero
• soltura

Related words

• soluto
• absolver
• Latin solūtus
• Portuguese solto
• Catalan solt
• English solute

Usage notes

Set phrases include cabo suelto “loose end”, verso suelto “blank verse”, dar rienda suelta “to give free rein” and dormir a pierna suelta “to sleep soundly”.^[1][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. suelto
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6222
4. ^ 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. 1, 23
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. suelto
6. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 730
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. absolver
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 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. soltar
10. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 217
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, 146
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 419
13. ^ 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. suelto
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 818
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1019
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 995
17. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1541
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. suelto
19. ^ 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. suelto