vaso

Forms

vaso m (plural vasos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish vaso, inherited from Latin vāsum (“vessel, container”).^[2][3][4][1] Classical Latin had the neuter vās, plural ⟨vasa⟩, but the plural was declined ⟨vasorum⟩, as from a singular in ⟨-um⟩, and that form existed in early Latin (Cato, Plautus) and in some late authors.^[2][5]

All the Romance forms come from this form, and the word stayed popular everywhere except in French: the same word is Portuguese vaso, Galician vaso, Asturian vasu, Catalan vas, Occitan vas, Italian vaso and Romanian vas.^[2][6][7]

De Vaan finds no good etymology for the Latin word beyond the Proto-Italic stem *wāss-; its only cognate is Umbrian.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Spanish record in the CDH is the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the first quarter of the 13th century), where Belshazzar drank with his women from the basos that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the holy city.^[8] The word is frequent in charters of the 10th and 11th centuries, but Corominas doubts whether their scribes meant to write Latin or Castilian; he dates it from Berceo, and the BDELC from 1220–1250.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From Berceo on the word is very common for liturgical and other vessels.^[2] Nebrija's Latin dictionary already shows a range like today's, listing glass vessels, drinking vessels and carved cups.^[2][9] Covarrubias in 1611 called it a general name for anything that holds something, and listed the beehive, the hollow of a lime kiln, the hold of a ship and, most commonly, the drinking glass;^[10] no tener vaso meant to be unable to take in teaching.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) added the sense “ship” and the hoof of a horse.^[11][2]

The anatomical and botanical sense, a duct that carries blood, lymph or sap, is in the modern DLE.^[4] In Valencian vaso means “beehive”, a use already found in Columella's plural vasa;^[2] Corominas suspects a local Mozarabism.^[2] In the Dominican Republic a vaso is a fenced plot of pasture.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1194–1211 – basos in the Liber Regum (in an early 13th-century copy).^[8]
• 1218–1250 – uasos de oro ni de plata in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses the word often of liturgical vessels.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has a glazed earthenware uaso.^[13]
• 1495 – the derivative vasar “shelf for dishes” is in Nebrija.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists the drinking glass as the commonest sense.^[10]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds “ship”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vessel: a hollow piece that can hold something.^[4][1]
2. A drinking glass, usually cylindrical: Me sirvió un vaso de leche.^[4][1]
3. A glassful.^[4][1]
4. A chamber pot (orinal).^[4][14]
5. (sculpture) An ornamental urn on a pedestal.^[4]
6. A natural basin holding a liquid.^[4]
7. The hoof of a horse.^[4][2]
8. (botany, physiology) A duct that carries sap, latex, blood or lymph.^[4][1]
9. (obsolete) A ship, or its hull.^[4][11]

Word family

• vasar
• vasadura
• vasera
• vasillo
• desvasar
• envasar
• extravasar
• transvasar
• posavasos

Related words

• vasija
• Latin vās
• Portuguese vaso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 749
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vaso
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. vaso
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, p. s.v. vās
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 7045
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. vas
8. ^ 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. vaso
9. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 428
10. ^ 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. 1372
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 427
12. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. vaso
13. ^ 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. vaso
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vaso