tiritar

Forms

tiritar (first-person singular present tirito, first-person singular preterite tirité, past participle tiritado)^[1]

Etymology

It is an imitative word, from the sound and trembling of someone who shivers.^[2][3][4] The DRAE of 2001 derives it from an onomatopoeia ⟨tir⟩ of trembling, and García de Diego groups it with aterir and dialect words from a root ⟨ter-⟩, ⟨tir-⟩.^[5][6] Covarrubias and Autoridades already explained it by the sound of the teeth.^[7][8] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived it from Latin territare (“to frighten”), an etymology later dropped.^[9][10][4]

Portuguese tiritar is the same word, with a northern variant tritar;^[11] Corominas sees parallel imitative creations in Italian intirizzire and German zittern (“to tremble”).^[2][11] Wiktionary compares Turkish titremek and Proto-Indo-European *trem-.^[1] A more popular variant titiritar is found from the 17th century.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is in Fernández de Oviedo's Historia general y natural de las Indias (1535–1557), of people who spend the night gimiendo y tiritando de temblor del excesivo frío “groaning and shivering with the excessive cold”.^[12] Corominas's earliest record was of 1609, from Alonso de la Puente, quoted by Autoridades.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense has always been to shiver with cold, as in Bernal Díaz's chronicle, where a cold wind from the snowy sierra nos hacía tiritar.^[12] Old dictionaries define it only by cold.^[7][13] Today it also covers shivering from fever or fear.^[4][14]

Colloquially, dejar tiritando something means to leave it almost used up.^[4][15] Chilean Spanish has the phrases tiritar la pera “to lose one's nerve” and tiritar la mano “to hesitate”.^[16]

Timeline

• 1535–1557 – Fernández de Oviedo's Historia general has tiritando of people shivering with cold.^[12]
• c. 1540–1579 – Sebastián de Horozco's Cancionero shows the Christ child tiritando in the manger.^[12]
• 1568 – Bernal Díaz uses it in Guatemala, beside a variant ateritar.^[17]
• 1609 – Corominas's first record, from Alonso de la Puente.^[3][2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the word by the sound of the mouth and teeth.^[7]
• 1739 – Autoridades calls it an onomatopoeia.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin territare.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To shiver or tremble with cold, or from fever, fear and the like: Los niños tiritaban en la parada del autobús.^[4][15][1]

Word family

• tiritón
• tiritona

Related words

• titiritar
• aterir
• Portuguese tiritar

Usage notes

The gerund is used colloquially in dejar or quedar tiritando “to leave or be left almost empty”.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 508
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tiritar
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. tiritar
5. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. tiritar
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tiritar
7. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1331
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 282
9. ^ 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. 1029
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 963
11. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3304
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tiritar
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 845
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tiritar
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tiritar
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tiritar
17. ^ 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. ateritar