tibio

Forms

tibio (feminine tibia, masculine plural tibios, feminine plural tibias)^[1] Old Spanish also had tebio, the form of the Leonese manuscript O of the Libro de Alexandre; manuscript P has tibio.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tibio, inherited from Latin tepidus (“lukewarm”).^[2][3][4][1] The same Latin adjective gave Portuguese tíbio, Galician tibo, Catalan tebi, Occitan tebe, French tiède and Italian tepido.^[5][6][7]

The Latin adjective is formed from tepeō (“to be warm”) with the suffix -idus.^[8][1] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *tep-ē- (“to be warm”) and Proto-Indo-European *t(e)p-eh₁- (“to be warm”), a root with cognates in Celtic, Indo-Iranian and Slavic.^[9]

The Latin vowel was a short /e/, and Corominas explains the ⟨i⟩ of the Spanish word as the result of that vowel under the influence of the yod in the next syllable.^[2][3] In his account the word kept two syllables after the stress, with the diphthong /je/, until late (perhaps about 1000); only then did the yod form and the diphthong reduce to /i/, a simplification he compares with Dieos becoming Dios.^[2] He rejects Menéndez Pidal's reconstruction with a long second vowel and Malkiel's *tepius, and notes that the Portuguese form is regular.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in the Libro de Alexandre (about 1250), describing a spring that was cold by day in the heat and warm at night in the hardest frost: de día era fría, quando faze calura, / tebia era de noche, a la mayor friúra.^[2][3] The sense is the physical one, “moderately warm”, which Alfonso X's Lapidario also uses.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, “slack, lacking fervour”, appears in Alfonso X's General estoria (1280), which speaks of the coraçon tibio of a foolish man.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives both senses, the moral one with a quotation about those who serve God half-heartedly.^[12] Terreros added that the word is used of spiritual and moral things, as in una amistad tibia “a lukewarm friendship”.^[13]

Today the second sense covers indifference and coolness between people as well as weak faith.^[4][14] Colloquial phrases are poner tibio a alguien “to run someone down” and ponerse tibio “to get very dirty” or “to eat one's fill”.^[4][14] In Colombia the adjective meant “angry, irritated” (Alemany, 1917); in El Salvador it means “somewhat annoyed”, and in Peru it is used of a person who is badly wounded.^[15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has tebio and tibio.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the physical sense.^[10]
• 1280 – the General estoria uses the figurative sense.^[10]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia glosses Latin tepefacio as fago ser tibio; the noun tibieza first appears in the same work.^[2][3]
• 1495 – Nebrija has tibia cosa, Latin tepidus;^[17] entibiar is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1550 – first record in the Americas, in Bogotá, in the figurative sense.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “warm, lukewarm”.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and marks the second sense as figurative.^[19]
• 1917 – Alemany records the Colombian sense “angry”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. lukewarm, tepid: neither cold nor hot (templado): Riega las macetas con agua tibia.^[4][1]
2. (figurative) indifferent, lacking warmth, enthusiasm or fervour: El ministro dio una respuesta tibia.^[4][14][1]
3. (El Salvador) Somewhat annoyed.^[16]
4. (Peru) Of a person: badly wounded.^[16]

Word family

• tibieza
• entibiar
• tibiamente

Related words

• Latin tepidus
• Portuguese tíbio
• Catalan tebi

Usage notes

Poner tibio a alguien means the same as poner verde “to run someone down”;^[20] ponerse tibio is “to get very dirty” and also “to eat one's fill”.^[4][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 483
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tibio
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. tibio
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tepidus
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. tepidus
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3292
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 c d 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. tibio
11. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. tibio
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 271
13. ^ 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, 628
14. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tibio
15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1581
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tibio
17. ^ 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. tibio
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 221
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. 1023
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 133