uncir

Forms

uncir (first-person singular present unzo, first-person singular preterite uncí, past participle uncido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote unzir; the Fuero Juzgo also has yunne, yunge and yunze.^[2][3] Nebrija recorded uñir, still used in Leonese dialects and in northern Argentina;^[4] unguir appears in 1267, and Aragonese has chunir and hunir.^[2] Asturian has xuncir and xoncer, and Alava and Aragon juncir.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish unzir, inherited from Latin iungō (“to yoke, join”).^[2][6][7][1] The Latin group ⟨ng⟩ before ⟨e⟩ gave a voiced /dz/, written ⟨z⟩, as in Old Spanish renzilla and enzía; the other outcome, /ɲ/, gave the variant uñir.^[2]

The loss of the Latin /j/- is unusual, since before ⟨u⟩ Spanish normally keeps it as ⟨j⟩.^[2] Forms that kept it survive in Mozarabic yunnir of about 1100, Old Spanish junir and dialect juncir.^[2] Corominas rejects E. H. Tuttle's idea that the initial palatal was taken for the pronoun ge.^[2]

The same verb is Portuguese jungir, Galician xunguir, Asturian xuncir, Catalan junyir, Occitan jónher, French joindre and Italian giungere.^[8][5][9] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Italic *jungō and Proto-Indo-European *yunégti, a nasal present of the root *yewg- (“to join, yoke”), the root of iugum (“yoke”).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is unzir in the Fuero Juzgo of 1240.^[2][6] Alfonso X's General estoria (1272–1275) says that a man was the first to invent the cart and to bring it drawn by yoked oxen or beasts, bestias yonnidas.^[11] A translation of Jacques de Vitry's history of Jerusalem, after 1350, lists the work of farmers: unzir los bueyes al carro “to yoke the oxen to the cart”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb had the wide sense “to join”, and the 16th-century variant uñir kept it, both for joining things and, in Fray Luis de Granada, for spiritual union.^[2] The standard verb narrowed to yoking animals: Autoridades in 1739 defined it as tying oxen or mules to the yoke for drawing.^[13] Domínguez in 1847 added figurative senses, to subject someone to a yoke.^[14] The VOX dictionary records a modern extension, to fasten a load to a thing or person.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – the Mozarabic form yunnir.^[2]
• 1240 – unzir in the Fuero Juzgo.^[2][6]
• 1267 – unguir in the constitutions of Bishop Martín Fernández.^[2]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria has yonnidas “yoked”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records uñir.^[2]
• 1575 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin iungere.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To yoke oxen, mules or other draught animals; to tie them to the yoke: Al amanecer el labrador unce los bueyes al arado.^[7][18][1]
2. (transitive) To fasten a load to something or someone.^[15]

Word family

• desuncir

Related words

• yugo
• yunta
• juntar
• unir
• Latin iungō
• Portuguese jungir

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 714
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. uncir
4. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. xuncir
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3627
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. uncir
7. ^ a b 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. uncir
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. jungere
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 921
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b 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. uncir
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. uncir
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 387
14. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1688
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. uncir
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. uncir
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1061
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. uncir