tío

Forms

tío m (plural tíos, feminine tía, feminine plural tías)^[1] Old Spanish documents write tio, thio, tyo and thyo.^[2] Old Aragonese had a form tiyo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tio, inherited from Late Latin thius (“uncle”), which is from Ancient Greek θεῖος (theîos, “uncle”).^[4][5][1] The feminine tía is likewise thia, from θεία (theía).^[4] Isidore of Seville already calls tius a Greek word, glossing it with patruus (“father's brother”).^[6] Niermeyer records the spellings Medieval Latin thius and zius for a father's brother.^[7]

The same Late Latin word is Portuguese tio, Galician tío, Catalan tio, Sardinian tiu and Italian zio.^[8][3][1] In Portuguese, as in Spanish, it replaced avunculus and the classical word for a father's brother.^[9] Meyer-Lübke notes that in Italy the word belonged first to the south and spread north at the expense of older words for “uncle”.^[8]

The Greek noun is first found in Attic;^[10] Beekes suggests an onomatopoeic origin with a suffix, and compares the reduplicated τήθη (tḗthē).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the second half of the 10th century.^[4] The DEMel's first dated records are charters of Nájera (1117), Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1156) and Oviedo (1157), all in the sense “uncle”.^[2] The Judizios de las estrellas of Alfonso X (1254) speaks of the profit a man will have „de sos tios de partes del padre” “from his uncles on his father's side”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the brother of a parent and, more loosely, a parent's cousin;^[12] Autoridades (1739) says it is taken broadly for the collateral relatives of a higher degree, called second or third uncle according to the degree.^[12] Autoridades also records that country people used it as a title for older men, and the phrase a tu tía, que te dé para libros, used to send away someone asking for something.^[12] The Academy's 1884 dictionary adds the familiar sense “rustic, coarse man” and the phrase tener uno tío en las Indias “to have a rich, influential patron”.^[13]

In modern colloquial Spanish of Spain tío and tía mean any man or woman whose name is unknown or not given, a person praised or blamed (¡qué tío!), and, above all among young people, a form of address to a friend.^[5][14][1] In parts of Aragon and Castile the feminine has meant “stepmother”, and the masculine “stepfather”, sometimes “father-in-law”.^[5][14] In Argentina it was once a title given to old Black men, and in the mining regions of Bolivia and north-western Argentina el tío is the devil or spirit believed to own the mine.^[15][14][16] The obsolete feminine sense “prostitute” is still listed by the Academy.^[5]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 10th century – first record, according to Corominas.^[4]
• 1117 – tio in a charter from Nájera.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas speaks of uncles on the father's side.^[11]
• 1513 – Nebrija notes that the word is the same in Greek.^[17]
• 1564 – first record from the Americas, in Honduras.^[18]
• 1605–1615 – the Quijote has mi tío y señor carnal.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it a Greek noun and gives the Latin patruus and avunculus.^[20]
• 1739 – Autoridades records its use by country people for older men.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “rustic, coarse man”.^[13]
• end of the 19th century – the compound tiovivo “merry-go-round” appears.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. uncle (feminine tía, aunt): the brother or sister of one's father or mother.^[5][1]
2. The husband or wife of one's aunt or uncle.^[5]
3. A cousin of one's father or mother (tío segundo), or a brother of a grandparent (tío abuelo).^[5][21]
4. (rural) A title placed before the name or nickname of a married or older person: el tío Ramón.^[5][14]
5. (colloquial, Spain) A guy or woman, someone whose name is not known or not given: Me paró en la calle un tío muy raro.^[5][1]
6. (colloquial) A person who is praised or criticised for something: ¡Qué tío tan generoso!^[5][14]
7. (colloquial, Spain) Used to address a friend or companion, like mate or dude: ¿Qué haces aquí, tío?^[5][1]
8. (colloquial) A rough, uncouth person.^[5]
9. (regional) A stepfather, sometimes a father-in-law; feminine a stepmother.^[5][14]

Word family

• tío abuelo
• tío segundo
• tiovivo

Related words

• Late Latin thius
• Portuguese tio
• Italian zio

Usage notes

The phrase no hay tu tía “there's no remedy” is a false separation of no hay tutía, from the medicine tutía.^[21] Tío bueno or tía buena is a vulgar expression for an attractive person.^[5] In Chile the cuento del tío is a swindle;^[22] Román traces it to the phrase tener un tío en las Indias.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tío
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tío
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. tío
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tio
10. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. tío
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 278
13. ^ 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. 1027
14. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tío
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 777
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tío
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 422
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. tío
19. ^ 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. s.v. tío
20. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1330
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. tío
22. ^ a b 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. 466