voraz

Forms

voraz m or f (masculine and feminine plural voraces)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vorāx (“devouring, ravenous”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The adjective is formed from Latin vorō (“to swallow, devour”) + -āx (“inclined to”).^[1][5] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *gʷorā- and to Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to swallow”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat”).^[5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan voraç, French vorace, Italian vorace and Portuguese voraz.^[6][7][8][9] A popular outcome survives in fish names: Portuguese goraz “sea bream”, and probably Galician buraz, a Galician name Corominas explains by the havoc the fish makes among other fish.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found the first record in Diego del Castillo, in the middle of the 15th century;^[2][3] Covarrubias has it in 1611.^[2][3] In 1490 Alfonso de Palencia used the plural voraces to gloss Latin heluentes, “those who eat greedily”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Oudin's dictionaries (1607, 1616) and the Quijote still lack the word, but Góngora used it several times, and Autoridades quotes 17th-century authors from Sandoval (1627).^[2] Autoridades (1739) gave three senses: of an animal that eats much, and of a person who eats a great deal greedily; figuratively, of someone without restraint in a vice; and of what consumes something violently and quickly, like fire.^[12] The DLE keeps the animal, the person and the destructive force (un voraz incendio), and Moliner adds a person who does anything with greedy eagerness, such as a voracious reader.^[4][13] Corominas calls it a purely literary word, though much used.^[2]

In the Americas the form vorace appears in 1588 in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[14] Santamaría records Mexican senses “bold, daring; greedy” and a reddish fish called voraz.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria (in a copy of the early 14th century) explains the name Cerberus from two words it calls Greek, one written voraz.^[11]
• c. 1450 – first record of the Spanish adjective, in Diego del Castillo.^[2][3]
• 1490 – Palencia glosses Latin heluentes as voraces.^[11]
• 1588 – vorace in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[14]
• c. 1590 – the noun voracidad.^[2][3]
• 1613 – Góngora uses the word.^[2]
• 1739 – Autoridades records the senses “ravenous” and “consuming like fire”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of an animal: eating a great deal; voracious.^[4][1]
2. Of a person: eating excessively and with great greed.^[4][13]
3. That destroys or consumes quickly: Un fuego voraz arrasó el monte.^[4][1][13]
4. Doing something with avid eagerness: un lector voraz.^[13]

Word family

• voracidad
• avorazarse
• vorazmente

Related words

• Latin vorāx
• French vorace

Usage notes

Voracidad is now a little more common than voraz itself, according to Corominas.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 843
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voraz
4. ^ a b c d e 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. voraz
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. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 9, 396
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vorace
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 851
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. voraz
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. vorax
11. ^ 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. voraz
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 522
13. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voraz
14. ^ 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. vorace
15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 268