tocar

Forms

tocar (first-person singular present toco, first-person singular preterite toqué, past participle tocado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *toccāre, an imitation of the sound of bells and other struck objects, ⟨toc⟩.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas considers the onomatopoeia common to all the Romance languages and probably already Vulgar Latin.^[2] The first sense was the striking of bells and other percussion instruments, and the sense “touch” grew out of “strike”.^[2][3]

The same verb is Portuguese tocar, Catalan tocar, Occitan tocar, French toucher, Italian toccare and Romanian toca (“to knock”).^[5][2] Corominas notes that Catalan, Occitan and Italian point to an open /ɔ/ and Spanish and French to a close /o/, a wavering typical of onomatopoeias.^[2]

Diez derived the verb from Frankish *tukkōn (“to touch, hit”), and Wiktionary leaves the choice between a Germanic and an onomatopoeic origin.^[2][6][1] Corominas rejects the Germanic source because the word reaches as far as Romanian and the Germanic verb meant only “to tug, snatch”, and he follows Schuchardt's onomatopoeic etymology.^[2] García de Diego mentions a possible reduction of a verb from Latin tundō (“to beat”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to Berceo, and the BDELC to 1220–1250.^[2][3] The CDH's earliest hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in Gideon's attack: „Tocaron las bozinas e crebantaron los cantaros” “they blew the horns and broke the jars”.^[8] In Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1236) the vespers are rung: „las viesperas tocadas”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From sounding bells and instruments the verb passed to the sense of touch, its most widespread meaning, and then to “belong to” and “fall to (one's turn)”.^[2] Berceo already uses tocado for “affected, struck (by envy)”.^[8] The sense “belong” is in an Aragonese inventory of 1374 and in Nebrija, who glosses tocar as pertenecer.^[2][10] Juan de Valdés uses it for a turn falling to someone.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded tocar con mano “to make sure by experience” and the rustic phrase ni me toca ni me atañe.^[11]

The old sense “knock at the door” lives on in parts of the Spanish-speaking world: the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Canaries, Honduras and Guatemala.^{[2][12][13][14][15][16]} In Dominican baseball it means “to bunt”.^[12] The past participle tocado “touched, half-mad” is explained by Corominas from the idea of a blow, without a Germanic source.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has tocaron las bozinas.^[8]
• c. 1236 – Berceo has las viesperas tocadas.^[9][8]
• 1374 – an Aragonese inventory has the sense “belong”.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it as pertenecer; the nouns toque and tocamiento and the adjective tocante are first recorded.^[10][2][3]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records tocar con mano and tocar instrumentos.^[11]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the sense of touch first.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin tactum; the DLE now says it comes from the onomatopoeia toc.^[19][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To touch; to reach something with the hand without grasping it.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To play a musical instrument or a piece of music: Mi hermana toca el violonchelo.^[4][1]
3. (transitive) To sound a signal with a bell or another instrument; to ring: tocar a muerto.^[4][1]
4. (transitive) Of a thing: to brush against another.^[4]
5. (transitive) To strike something to judge its quality by the sound; to test gold or silver on the touchstone.^[4]
6. (transitive) To bring something into contact with another so that it takes on its virtue, as iron to a magnet.^[4]
7. (transitive, mostly negative) To alter, interfere with: No toques nada de mi escritorio.^[4]
8. (transitive) To learn by experience; to move or inspire.^[4][1]
9. (transitive) To touch on a subject in passing.^[4][1]
10. (fencing) To hit the opponent with the weapon.^[4]
11. (intransitive, impersonal) To be someone's turn, or to fall to someone: Ahora te toca a ti.^[1][3]
12. (intransitive) To belong or concern: en lo que toca a.^[10][1]
13. (regional) To knock at a door.^[12][14][1]

Word family

• tocante
• toque
• toquetear
• retocar
• tocamiento
• tocable
• tocadiscos
• tocapelotas

Related words

• tocata
• Italian toccare
• French toucher

Usage notes

The DLE has a separate tocar² “to dress the hair; to put on a hat or other head covering”, from the noun toca.^[4][1] The BDELC dates it to 1220–1250, and Alfonso X's General estoria of 1280 uses it.^[20][21] Covarrubias and Percyvall record it beside the main verb.^[11][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 520
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tocar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. tocar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8767
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. tocar
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6728
8. ^ 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. tocar
9. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 752
10. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 423
11. ^ 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. 1333
12. ^ a b c Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. tocar
13. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. tocar
14. ^ 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. tocar
15. ^ Membreño, Alberto (1897), Hondureñismos: vocabulario de los provincialismos de Honduras, 2nd ed., Tegucigalpa: Tipografía Nacional, p. 174
16. ^ Batres Jáuregui, Antonio (1892), Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, Guatemala: Encuadernación y Tipografía Nacional, p. 526
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. tocar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 287
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. 1030
20. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. toca
21. ^ 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. tocar
22. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 222