tiesto

Forms

tiesto m (plural tiestos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin testum (“earthenware pot; lid”), through Old Spanish tiesto.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun, with the variant testū, is a derivative of testa (“earthenware vessel, tile, sherd”).^[1][4] Stressed short /e/ gave the diphthong /je/.^[5][3]

The same word is Catalan test, Portuguese testo, Galician testo and Italian testo.^[6][7][1] From the same Latin source come Old Spanish tiesta (“head”) and, through Italian, testa.^[3][1]

De Vaan finds no convincing etymology for the Latin vessel word: a derivation from *teḱ- (“to build”) is unlikely.^[4] Wiktionary adds the suggestion that a word for a vessel was borrowed from a substrate language.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest record is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250).^[8] The Traslación del Psalterio of Herman the German (c. 1240–1272) has the psalm verse secosse el mío paladar, assí como tiesto “my palate dried up like a potsherd”.^[9] Alfonso X's Picatrix (1256) has un tiesto de barro, a clay vessel to cook in.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In medieval prose tiesto was also the skull, as in the Estoria de España (a blow that cut a piece of the tiesto de la cabeça); the DLE keeps this sense as obsolete.^[10][2] The sense “flowerpot” is in Covarrubias (1611), who gives a pot of basil as the example, and in Cervantes, who says that in Seville a tiesto is called a maceta.^[11][12] Autoridades (1739) put the sense “piece of a clay vessel” first, as the DLE still does.^[12][2] In Bolivia, Chile and Honduras it means any vessel, in Colombia an old car, and in the Canaries a clay griddle for toasting grain and an insult for a worthless person.^[2][13][14] The phrase mear fuera del tiesto means to say something beside the point.^[2]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – tiesto in La fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[8]
• c. 1240–1272 – “like a potsherd” in Herman the German's psalter.^[9]
• 1256 – tiesto de barro in Alfonso X's Picatrix.^[10]
• 1284 – tiesto de la cabeça “skull” in the Estoria de España.^[10]
• 1551 – first record in the Americas of the vessel, in Santo Domingo.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: the vessel in which herbs or flowers are planted.^[11]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines both the sherd and the flowerpot.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin testum.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A potsherd, a broken piece of any clay vessel.^[2][1]
2. A flowerpot, a maceta: Puso los geranios en un tiesto nuevo.^[2][17][1]
3. (Bolivia, Chile, Honduras) A vessel of any kind.^[2][13]
4. (Colombia, colloquial) An old, battered car.^[13][1]
5. (obsolete) The skull.^[2]

Related words

• testa
• testuz
• maceta
• Catalan test

Usage notes

A different tiesto, an adjective “taut, tense; stubborn”, comes from Latin *tensĭtus for tensus, from tendere.^[18][17] Vox explains it as an old participle of tender formed like puesto.^[19] Alfonso X used it for “hard, not easily bent”, a sense the DLE marks as obsolete.^[10][18] Set phrases of the noun are mear fuera del tiesto and salirse del tiesto.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. tiesto
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tiesto
4. ^ 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
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6671
6. ^ 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, 463
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. testo
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tiesto
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tiesto
10. ^ a b c d e 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. tiesto
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. 1329
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6
13. ^ 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. tiesto
14. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. tiesto
15. ^ 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. tiesto
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. 1025
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tiesto
18. ^ a b 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. tiesto2
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tiesto 2