viscosidad

Forms

viscosidad f (plural viscosidades)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish viscoso (“viscous, sticky”) + -idad.^[1][2] Autoridades instead traced it to viscōsitās.^[3] Corominas lists both words under visco (“birdlime”).^[4][5]

viscoso is taken from Latin viscōsus (“sticky”), which comes from viscum (“mistletoe; birdlime made from its berries”).^[4][6] De Vaan considers the Latin noun either an Indo-European word or a European loanword for mistletoe or a fruit-bearing tree, and compares Ancient Greek ἰξός (ixós, “mistletoe, birdlime”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest records from manuscripts are in treatises on farming and medicine around 1400: the Tratado de plantar o enjerir árboles o de conservar el vino (1385–1407) says that a wine whose foam falls quickly has no viscosidat to make it rot.^[8] Around the same time a medical text speaks of the viscosidat of fish, and Velasco de Taranto (1410) of the viscosity of the humours.^[8] Corominas dates the word only from Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary of 1490.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In medieval medicine the word meant the sticky, glutinous quality of the humours and of foods.^[8] Autoridades defined it as a sticky or glutinous matter or humour, and the Academy kept that definition until 1899, when it added “the quality of being viscous”.^[3][2][9] The physical sense, a fluid's resistance to flow caused by friction between its molecules, is in the 2001 dictionary under mechanics and in the current one under physics.^[10][11] The DTME gives it as a medical term too.^[12]

Timeline

• 1385–1407 – first record, in a treatise on grafting trees and keeping wine.^[8]
• 1410 – Velasco de Taranto's treatise on the plague.^[8]
• 1490 – Corominas's first record, in Alfonso de Palencia.^[4][5]
• 1575 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico, spelt vescosidad.^[13]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as a sticky matter.^[3]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “quality of being viscous”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being viscous; stickiness, viscousness.^[11][1]
2. A viscous matter or secretion: El caracol dejaba una viscosidad brillante sobre la piedra.^[11][14][1]
3. (physics) viscosity: a fluid's resistance to flow, due to friction between its molecules.^[11][1]

Related words

• viscoso
• visco
• Latin viscum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1093
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 497
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 830
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. visco
6. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. viscosidad
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. viscosidad
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1024
10. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. viscosidad
11. ^ a b c d 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. viscosidad
12. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. viscosidad
13. ^ 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. vescosidad
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. viscosidad