viso

Forms

viso m (plural visos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīsus (“sight; look, appearance”).^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is formed from videō (“to see”) with the suffix -tus;^[4][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *weissus and Proto-Indo-European *wéydˢtus, from the root *weyd- (“to see, know”).^[4][1] VOX explains most modern senses from the Latin sense “thing seen”, hence “look, appearance”.^[5]

The same Latin word is Italian viso (“face”), Old French vis, Old Occitan vis, Portuguese viso and Sardinian bisu.^[6][1]

García de Diego derived the sense “height from which one sees far” from abyssus (“abyss”), crossed with the Latin word for sight.^[7] Corominas rejects this, explaining it as a place from which another place comes into view, a sense frequent in place names.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, known from an 18th-century copy) a blind man regains his sight: ovo claro sue viso commo nunqa mejor.^[8][3] The same sense, “sight”, is found in Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279), of a stone so dark that sight cannot pass through it.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used viso for the sense of sight (13th–15th centuries), for the human face, and for a vision.^[3][9] Autoridades quotes Juan de Mena listing viso among the outward senses, and already calls that sense antiquated.^[10] The sense “height, place from which one sees” is in the second part of the Estoria de España, with los visos altos beyond a bridge, and survives in place names.^[9][3]

From the early 17th century viso is also the changing shade of colour on a surface and a pretext.^[3][11] In a 1608 dictionary from Lima hacer visos means “to glitter”.^[12] Domínguez (1846–1847) records the coloured lining or underdress worn under a light fabric to show through it.^[13] Today a viso is a slip in Mexico, Cuba, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Canaries.^[14][15][16] In Chile it is a fine highlight in dyed hair.^[14] Today the commonest use is the plural visos “signs, appearance”, as in tener visos de.^[5][17]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – the Fuero de Coria has visos, DEMel's first record.^[18]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán uses viso for sight.^[8][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for sight.^[9]
• 1284–1345 – the second part of the Estoria de España has los visos altos “the heights”.^[9]
• Early 17th century – first records of the senses “shade of colour on a surface” and “pretext”.^[3]
• 1608 – hacer visos “to glitter” in a dictionary from Lima.^[12]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records sight (antiquated), a high place and the sheen of a surface.^[10]
• 1836 – Pichardo's Cuban vocabulary records viso for an underskirt.^[19]
• 1846–1847 – Domínguez records the coloured lining worn under a light dress.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives its Latin etymon.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A height from which much land can be seen, a vantage point.^[2][1]
2. The surface of smooth or glossy things that strikes the eye with a particular colour or reflection, a sheen.^[2]
3. A wave of glimmer that some things make when light falls on them; often in the plural, hacer visos: La seda hacía visos azules.^[2][1]
4. A coloured lining or garment worn under a light fabric so that it shows through;^[2][14] (Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay) a slip.^[2][14]
5. The appearance of things, mostly in the plural: La propuesta tiene visos de salir adelante.^[2][5]
6. (obsolete) The sense of sight.^[2]
7. (Chile) A fine highlight dyed in the hair.^[14]

Word family

• visillo

Related words

• ver
• visaje
• visera
• vista
• Latin vīsus

Usage notes

Set phrases include a dos visos “with two aims at once” and al viso, of looking at a fabric sideways to judge its colour and gloss.^[2] Viso is also a form of the verb visar “to endorse”, a separate word from French.^[3]

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 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. viso
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 713
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. viso
9. ^ a b c d e 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. viso
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 501
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 845
12. ^ a b 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. viso
13. ^ a b 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, 1745
14. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. viso
15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 1116
16. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. viso
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. viso
18. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. viso
19. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1836), Diccionario provincial de voces cubanas, Matanzas: Imprenta de la Real Marina, p. 260
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1024