tijera

Forms

tijera f (plural tijeras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote tisera, tixera and tigera;^[2][3][1] tisera is the oldest form, already in Berceo.^[2][3][1] Tisera is still used in Andalusia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Americas;^[2][4] estijeras is heard in Salamanca and Extremadura.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tixera, beside tisera, inherited from Latin tōnsōria (“for shearing, of a barber”).^[1][4][5] The DLE takes the singular from the plural, and that from the Latin feminine accusative plural, with forfex (“shears”) understood: “shears for shearing”.^[6] Wiktionary and the Academy's 1884 dictionary start instead from the neuter plural, with ferrāmentum (“iron tool”) understood, as in Martial's phrase for “barber's tools”.^[1][7][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese tesoura, Galician tesoira, Asturian tixeres and Catalan estisores.^[4][1][9] Wiktionary suggests that the unexpected ⟨i⟩ of the Spanish, Asturian and Catalan forms may come from the unrelated Old French cisoires (“scissors”).^[1] Nascentes explains the Portuguese vowel by dissimilation of the first /o/.^[10]

The Latin adjective is derived from tōnsor (“barber”), from tondeō (“to shear, clip”).^[8][11] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as *tond-éie- (“to shear”), with cognates in Old Irish and Greek.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), where the Cid vows that for love of King Alfonso nin entrarié en ella tigera, ni un pelo non avrié tajado “no scissors would go into it [his beard], nor would a hair of it be cut”.^[3] The oldest form, tisera, is in Berceo, and a work of Alfonso X of 1277 has figures cut out con tiseras.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The word is usually plural, unas tijeras, for one instrument, as the Diccionario de Autoridades already notes.^[13][6] From the 18th century the dictionaries extend it to anything shaped like an X: the carpenter's trestle for sawing timber, the crossed straps under the body of a coach, the crossed timbers of a roof.^[13][14][15] In 1817 the Academy also recorded a drainage ditch, the shearer at a sheep-shearing, a gossip, and the first feather of a falcon's wing.^[15]

The figurative buena tijera meant a person skilled at cutting, a big eater, or a sharp-tongued gossip.^[16][6] The sense “gossip” is alive in El Salvador and elsewhere in the Americas, and in Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay tijeras are the rafters of a gable roof.^[17][18] Sport has added the scissor kick in football and a scissor hold in wrestling.^[19][20]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) has tigera.^[3]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo has the form tisera; this is Corominas's date for the word.^[2][5]
• 1277 – a work of Alfonso X uses tiseras.^[12]
• 1293 – unas tijeras in the Castigos, the first record in a contemporary manuscript.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives tiseras as Latin forfices.^[5]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, including sheep shears.^[21]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades, under tixera, notes that the word is mostly plural.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary, spelling tijera, adds the gossip and the falcon's feather.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from tonsoria ferramenta.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. scissors, shears: a cutting tool of two pivoted blades; often in the plural with the same sense: Pásame las tijeras de cocina.^[6][1]
2. Anything made of two crossed pieces that turn on a pivot, as in silla de tijera “folding chair”.^[6][22]
3. A drainage ditch cut in wet ground.^[6]
4. A sheep shearer;^[6] (Segovia) the number of sheep one man can shear in a day.^[6]
5. A sawhorse: an X-shaped trestle on which a log is laid for sawing or dressing.^[6]
6. (architecture) Each of the trusses holding up a roof;^[6] (in the plural) the side rails of a cart ladder, or a boom of crossed beams in a river to stop floating timber.^[6]
7. (falconry) The first feather of a falcon's wing.^[6]
8. A gossip, a person who speaks ill of others.^[6][17]
9. (sports) A scissor kick in football; a scissor hold in wrestling.^[19][20]

Word family

• tijereta
• tijeretazo
• tijeretear
• tijeruela
• tijerilla

Related words

• tundir
• tonsura
• Latin tondeō
• Portuguese tesoura

Usage notes

The plural tijeras is more common than the singular for one instrument.^[6] Cortados por la misma tijera means “cut from the same cloth”.^[6][18]

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 Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. tijera
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tijera
4. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6742
5. ^ a b c 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. tijera
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. tijera
7. ^ 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. 1025
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tonsōrius
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3279
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tesoura
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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. tijera
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 285
14. ^ 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, 634
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 843
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 748
17. ^ 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. tijera
18. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 170
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tijera
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tijera
21. ^ 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. tijera
22. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1640