vértigo

Forms

vértigo m (plural vértigos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin vertīgō (“a whirling movement; giddiness”).^[2][3][4] The Latin noun meant first a turning or spinning movement and then the giddiness that goes with it, and the Spanish word took over the second sense.^[5][6][7] Wiktionary calls it inherited, but the DLE, Corominas and Vox treat it as a borrowing from Latin, and Vox dates it to the 18th century.^[1][4][3]

The Latin word is formed from vertō (“to turn”) with the suffix -īgō.^[7][1] Wiktionary also notes that it may come from vertex (“whirl; summit”), with the velar of the oblique cases voiced before the nasal of the suffix.^[1] The verb continues *wertō, from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).^[1]

The same Latin word was borrowed as French vertige, Italian vertigine, Catalan vertigen and Portuguese vertigem, all from the oblique cases of the Latin noun.^[8][9][10] Spanish, by contrast, took the nominative.^[9][2] The Latin word is also the source of the inherited French avertin, the name of a disease of sheep.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Spanish records are medical: a Castilian version of Isidore's Etymologies, written after 1450 and known from a copy of the late 15th century, explains that a whirling of the humours in the head is called vértigo.^[12] In 1494 a translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus has a chapter on una enfermedad llamada vertigo “an illness called vertigo”, and the 1495 Spanish Lilio de medicina heads a chapter De vértigo e scotomia “On vertigo and dimness of sight”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds the word in the dictionaries only from Autoridades (1739), where it was still written without an accent and stressed on the second syllable, as in Latin.^[13] He calls the present stress on the first syllable a barbarism, which Terreros and the Academy's dictionary of 1817 already accepted.^[13] The Academy's dictionaries of 1817 to 1899 explain it as vahído “dizzy spell”.^[14][15] From 1869 they add a sudden and usually passing disturbance of the mind, “a kind of madness”.^[14][16][15] Salvá (1846) also records a kind of apoplexy of horses.^[17]

The modern dictionaries define vertigo in medical terms, as a disturbed sense of balance with the feeling that one's body or the things around it are turning.^[2][18] A figurative sense, a frantic pace of activity, has been added (el vértigo de la vida moderna), and the colloquial phrase de vértigo describes something dizzyingly fast or impressive.^[2][19][1]

Timeline

• After 1450 – a Castilian version of Isidore's Etymologies (in a late 15th-century copy) names the whirling of the head vértigo.^[12]
• 1494 – Vicente de Burgos's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus has a chapter on the illness.^[12]
• 1495 – the Spanish Lilio de medicina of Gordonius has a chapter on vertigo and scotoma.^[12]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the word, without an accent;^[13][3][4] Corominas and Vox date it to this time.^[13][3][4]
• 1775 – first record in the Americas, from New Granada: the tapir's hooves are said to cure epilepsy and vertigo.^[20]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary prints vértigo and defines it as vahído.^[14][13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin vertigo, from vertere “to turn”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. vertigo, dizziness: a disorder of the sense of balance in which one's body or the things around it seem to be turning.^[2][1]
2. A sudden, passing confusion of the mind.^[2][19]
3. (figurative) An unusually hectic pace of activity, of a person or a group: el vértigo de la bolsa en los días de crisis.^[2][1]
4. (psychology) vértigo de la altura: the fear of falling from a height, or of someone else falling.^[2]

Related words

• vertiginoso
• verter
• vértice
• Latin vertīgō
• French vertige

Usage notes

The phrase de vértigo (colloquial) describes something dizzyingly fast, busy or impressive.^[19][1]

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 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. vértigo
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. verter
4. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vértigo
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 723
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. vértigo
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vertigen
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vertigem
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ 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, p. s.v. vértigo
13. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 791
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 888
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1016
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 790
17. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1109
18. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. vértigo
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vértigo
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. vértigo