triscar

Forms

triscar (first-person singular present trisco, first-person singular preterite trisqué, past participle triscado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽 (þriskan, “to thresh”), whose sense passed in Spanish to “to stamp” and then to “to leap about, frolic”.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas considers the Gothic source certain for Spanish and Portuguese.^[2] He explains the ⟨i⟩ of the Spanish verb, against the ⟨e⟩ of Catalan trescar and Occitan trescar, by the late settlement of the Goths in central Spain: by then Latin ⟨ĭ⟩ had drifted too far from the Germanic ⟨i⟩ for the two to develop alike.^[2]

The same Germanic verb is the source of Portuguese triscar, Old French treschier and Italian trescare.^[2][1] In Occitan, Old French and Italian the sense “to dance” prevails, while the Catalan verb means “to run about, to walk lightly”.^[2] Corominas derives the French verb from Frankish *threskan, hesitates between Gothic and Lombard for the Italian one, and prefers Gothic to Frankish for Catalan and Occitan, where Gamillscheg had chosen Frankish.^[2] García de Diego derives the verb “to mix” from Vulgar Latin *tercicare, a derivative of tertiō (“to do a third time”), and a verb “to break” from Vulgar Latin *triticare.^[5][6]

The Gothic verb continues Proto-Germanic *þreskaną (“to thresh”), also the source of Old High German dreskan, Old English þerscan and English thresh.^[7][8][1] Orel compares Lithuanian treškėti (“to crackle”) and Ancient Greek τιτρώσκω (titrṓskō, “to wound”), while Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn”).^[7][1] If the Baltic and Slavic comparison is right, the first sense was “to stamp noisily”; but Corominas notes that the Romance senses can also come from threshing, which the early Germans did by treading the grain.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Gonzalo de Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy), already in the figurative sense “to make merry”: the Jews guarding the tomb of Christ sing a mocking song, Mientre ellos triscaban, dizién sus truferías “while they made merry, they spoke their jests”.^[9][2][3] Lanchetas glossed the word there as whistling, and Cejador as snapping the fingers in dancing.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th-century Purgatorio de San Patricio the verb seems to mean “to leap about”, and the noun trisca is a lively dance in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][12] Nebrija left it out;^[13] Percyvall glossed it in 1591 as “to jest, to gibe”.^[2][13] Autoridades (1739) gave two senses, to make a noise with the feet or by stamping, with an example from Ercilla's horses, and to romp and play.^[14][2] Corominas calls it an expressive word, seldom used in literature but alive in every period.^[2]

The Academy's 1843 edition added a transitive regional sense “to mix, entangle”, said of wheat that the wind has tangled so that it cannot be reaped well, and a carpenters' sense.^[15] The sense of setting the teeth of a saw first appears in the 1899 edition.^[16] In the Americas it means to make fun of someone in Cuba and to criticise or gossip in Colombia, and in the Dominican Republic to mimic someone mockingly.^[17][18] In Leonese it also means to eat greedily, to break something and, of lambs and kids, to frisk.^[19]

Timeline

• 1236–1246 – first record, in Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (in an 18th-century copy).^[9][2]
• c. 1250 – the noun trisca “dance” in the Libro de Alexandre.^[3][2]
• 13th century – the Purgatorio de San Patricio uses the verb for leaping about.^[12][2]
• 1385 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España pairs baylando and triscando.^[9]
• 1546 – first record from the Americas, as trescando, in Santo Domingo.^[20]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to jest, to gibe”.^[13]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines stamping and romping.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the regional sense “to mix, entangle”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's first etymology derives it from a Gothic verb “to stamp”.^[21]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense of setting a saw and derives the word from Latin instead.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To entangle or mix one thing with another: El viento ha triscado la cebada.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To set a saw, bending its teeth alternately to each side so that the blade runs freely in the cut.^[4][22][1]
3. (intransitive) To make a noise with the feet; to stamp.^[4][1]
4. (intransitive) To frolic, romp, leap about playfully.^[4][22][1]
5. (Cuba) To make fun of someone;^[17] (Colombia) to criticise, to gossip.^[17]
6. (Dominican Republic) To mimic someone mockingly; to criticise someone spitefully.^[18]

Word family

• trisca
• triscador

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 k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 642
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. triscar
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. triscar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6645
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6872
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 426
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. triscar
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 764
11. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 418
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. triscar
13. ^ a b c Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 225
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 360
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 719
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 987
17. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 794
18. ^ a b 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. triscar
19. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. triscar
20. ^ 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. trescar
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1053
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. triscar