tuerto

Forms

tuerto (feminine tuerta, masculine plural tuertos, feminine plural tuertas)^[1] Old Spanish also has torto and atuerto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tuerto, inherited from Latin tortus (“twisted”), the past participle of torqueō (“to twist, wind”).^[1][3][4][5] The same participle gave Italian torto, Portuguese torto and Occitan tort;^[6] Spanish and Friulian also developed the sense “squinting”.^[6] The noun “wrong, injury” goes back to the neuter used as a noun, which Medieval Latin has for “injustice, harm”, as does French tort.^[6][7][8]

The Latin verb is a causative, from the root Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to turn”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses tuerto as a noun, “wrong, injustice”, the opposite of derecho “right”, and tener tuerto a uno for “to wrong someone”.^[9][10] At line 3138 the king says ca tuerto non mando yo “for I do not command wrong”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective the word first meant “twisted”, in Berceo, and then “unjust”, in the Libro de Apolonio.^[12][10] Applied to the eyes it meant “squint-eyed”, literally “with twisted sight”, in the Primera Crónica General (c. 1280); “one-eyed” followed in Juan Ruiz (BDELC: 1335), through the common popular confusion of the two ideas.^[12][10] Covarrubias in 1611 still gives all three senses: anything not straight, the person with only one eye, and the wrong done to someone.^[13]

The noun “wrong” was frequent in medieval law, above all in the Partidas, and was later replaced by entuerto in the 16th-century books of chivalry.^[13][10] Don Quixote's mission is to enderezar tuertos “to right wrongs”, an expression Cejador compares with French tort.^[8][14] The Academy marked the noun as old in 1843 and “squint-eyed” as old in 1869;^[15][16][17] Baralt in 1855 wanted the phrase a tuerto “wrongly” brought back.^[15][16][17]

In Chile the adjective also means “stunned, at a loss after a bad surprise”.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the noun “wrong”.^[9][10]
• 1220–1250 – the adjective “twisted”, in Berceo.^[10][12]
• c. 1250 – “unjust”.^[10]
• c. 1280 – “squint-eyed”, in the Primera Crónica General.^[10][12]
• 1335 – “one-eyed”.^[10]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it “not straight”, Latin obliquus.^[19]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: tuerto de un ojo.^[20]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “crooked”.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the senses “not straight”, “one-eyed” and “wrong”.^[13]
• 1843 – the Academy marks the noun “wrong” as old.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy first gives the etymology, from Latin tortus.^[22]

Meanings

Adjective

1. one-eyed, blind in one eye; also as a noun, a one-eyed person: Se quedó tuerto tras el accidente.^[3][1][23]
2. (obsolete) squint-eyed.^[3]
3. (Chile, popular) Stunned or at a loss after a bad surprise.^[18]

Noun

1. A wrong or injury done to someone.^[3][1]
2. (in the plural) afterpains, the pains after childbirth; the same as entuertos.^[3][23]

Word family

• entuerto
• entortar
• ojituerto
• patituerto

Related words

• torcer
• tortura
• tortuoso
• Latin tortus
• Portuguese torto

Usage notes

The proverb en el reino de los ciegos, el tuerto es el rey “in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king” is common.^[1] A tuertas means “the wrong way round, askew”, and the old a tuerto o a derecho “rightly or wrongly” is already in Juan Ruiz.^[3][11][13] The word forms the second part of compounds such as ojituerto and patituerto.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ 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. tuerto
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1123
9. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 463
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. torcer
11. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 421
12. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 553
13. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1354
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. tuerto
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 722
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 770
17. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 708
18. ^ 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. tuerto
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 425
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. tuerto
21. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 226
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1057
23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tuerto