tizón

Forms

tizón m (plural tizones)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tizón, inherited from Latin tītiō (“firebrand, burning log”).^[2][3][4][1] Lactantius already gives the Latin word as the common people's name for a half-burnt log taken from the hearth.^[5] Corominas notes that it has been in general use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese tição, Galician tizón, Asturian tizón, Catalan tió, French tison, Italian tizzone and Romanian tăciune.^[6][1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *tītjō (“heating”).^[1][7] De Vaan and Wiktionary derive it, with some doubt, from Proto-Indo-European *teyh₁- (“to become hot, melt”), a root that Kloekhorst takes to have meant “to end, finish”.^[7][1]

Corominas derives tizo from the noun by back-formation, in Quevedo; the Academy's dictionary of 1884 instead called the longer noun an augmentative of the shorter one.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word as the name of one of the Cid's swords: al una dizen Colada e al otra Tizón “one they call Colada and the other Tizón”; personal names of the 12th century also use it.^[9][2] The first record of the common noun in the CDH is La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), with tizones fumeantes “smoking firebrands”.^[9] Corominas's first record is Berceo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Juan Ruiz has the derivative tizonador “stoker”; from an unrecorded *tizonar Corominas derives, by syncope, tiznar “to blacken with soot”, recorded in the same author.^[2][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades recorded two figurative senses: smut, the disease that turns the grain of wheat into black powder, and a stain on someone's reputation.^[10] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 added the end of a stone or brick that goes into the wall, with the phrase a tizón for laying stones with their long side across the wall.^[8]

The sword name gave Tizona (early 17th century), the usual name of the Cid's sword today.^[2][3] In the Canary Islands tizón names the dark lizards of Tenerife and La Gomera.^[11] In Puerto Rico it means a drug addict, and a fungal disease of coffee.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 12th century – used as a personal name in charters.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (14th-century copy) names a sword Tizón.^[9]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy): tizones fumeantes.^[9]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán, the first record for Corominas.^[2][9]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria has tongs for clearing the brands from the altar.^[14]
• 1335 – the derivatives tizonador and tiznar in Juan Ruiz.^[3]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives tizon with Latin titio.^[15]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• early 17th century – Tizona as the name of the Cid's sword.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the building sense and the phrase a tizón.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A half-burnt stick, a firebrand.^[4][1]
2. A stain on someone's reputation.^[4][10]
3. (botany) smut, a parasitic fungus of wheat and other cereals that fills the grain with black spores; also a blight of other plants.^[4][1]
4. (construction) The width of an ashlar or brick, the end that goes into the wall;^[17] a tizón, laid as a header.^[4][17]
5. (Canary Islands) A dark lizard of Tenerife or La Gomera (Gallotia).^[11]
6. (Puerto Rico, drug slang) A drug addict.^[12]

Word family

• tizona
• tizoncillo
• atizar
• tizonada
• tiznar
• tizonear

Related words

• tizo
• Latin tītiō
• Catalan tió

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 512
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tizón
4. ^ a b c d e 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. tizón
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1030
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, s.v. tizón
11. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. tizón
12. ^ 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. tizón
13. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. tizón
14. ^ 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. tizón
15. ^ 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
16. ^ 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. tizón
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tizón