voluptuoso

Forms

voluptuoso (feminine voluptuosa, masculine plural voluptuosos, feminine plural voluptuosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin voluptuōsus (“pleasant, delightful”), dated by Corominas to about 1440.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed from voluptās (“pleasure”) with the suffix -ōsus, its ending taken from adjectives such as virtuōsus.^[1][4] The noun is a derivative of the adverb volup (“with pleasure”).^[5][6]

Bénaben and Wiktionary place it in the family of volō (“to want”).^[6][1] De Vaan instead reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *u(e/o)lp-i (“hope, pleasure”), with Ancient Greek ἔλπομαι (élpomai, “to expect, hope”) as cognate.^[5] The same Latin word was borrowed as French voluptueux, Italian voluttuoso and Portuguese voluptuoso.^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to about 1440, without quoting the passage.^[2] Autoridades (1739) defined it as a person given to sensual pleasures and delights.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From a person given to pleasure the word extended to whatever inspires or causes it: Salvá (1846) added “what inclines one to such pleasures and encourages them”, and the Academy in 1869 put this sense first and the person second, used also as a noun.^[10][11] Moliner applies it to sensations, smells and ways of life, as well as to people.^[12] In the Americas it is recorded from 1791 in Lima, of famous voluptuaries.^[13] The noun voluptuosidad dates from the end of the 19th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – first record of voluptuoso.^[2][7]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as “given to sensual pleasures”.^[9]
• 1791 – first record in the Americas, in Lima.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy puts the sense “inclining to pleasure” first.^[11]
• late 19th century – the noun voluptuosidad.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. voluptuous: that inclines one to voluptuousness, inspires it or makes one feel it: una música voluptuosa.^[3][1][12]
2. Given to sensual pleasures; also as a noun, a voluptuary.^[3][12]

Word family

• voluptuosidad

Related words

• voluntad
• Latin voluptās
• French volupté

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voluptuoso
3. ^ a b c 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. voluptuoso
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uoluptuōsus
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
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. voluptuoso
7. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 849
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. voluptuoso
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 519
10. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1124
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 801
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voluptuoso
13. ^ 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. voluptuoso