yeso

Forms

yeso m (plural yesos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gypsum (“gypsum, plaster”), which is from Ancient Greek γύψος (gúpsos, “chalk, gypsum; quicklime”).^[2][3][4][1] Old Spanish wrote it yesso, with the ⟨ss⟩ that marked the voiceless /s/ in the Middle Ages.^[2][1] The Romance forms follow the Greek stress and show that the Latin ⟨y⟩ was short.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese gesso, Galician xeso, Catalan guix, Occitan geis and Italian gesso.^[5][6][2] The Leonese form with /l/, Asturian yelsu, is still used in Asturias, and according to García de Diego this form reaches Santander, Burgos, Soria and parts of Segovia and the Rioja.^[2][6] The Greek or Latin word also passed into Arabic; from the Andalusian Arabic form come aljez (1595) and the Catalan algeps of Valencia.^[2][5][1]

Beekes and Gómez de Silva think the Greek word was borrowed from a Semitic language;^[7][8][1] Wiktionary calls it of unknown origin, perhaps a word that travelled between many languages.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250) names yesso among the resources of the land, beside mills, tiles and springs.^[9] Corominas, who dates the word only from Palencia's dictionary of 1490, doubts an earlier record in a Mozarabic document of 1206, because Oelschläger's list does not separate the Mozarabic words from later notes in Latin script.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word was already used for the mineral, which Alfonso X's Lapidario describes as a soft, white stone, and for stones of the urinary tract: the Moamín book of falconry has a mal del yesso.^[10][9] Covarrubias in 1611 told the shining crystalline kind, called espejuelo, from the kind burnt in kilns for building.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades wrote hyeso in 1734, arguing that the Latin gypsum called for an h, although many wrote yeso.^[11]

The Academy's 1869 edition first called it calcium sulphate, and by 1899 it also recorded the sense “a sculpture cast in plaster”.^[12][13] Today it also names the plaster cast set on a broken limb.^[4][14] In Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador yeso is the chalk used on a blackboard.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has yesso.^[9]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario describes la piedra del yesso.^[10]
• 1490 – Palencia's Universal vocabulario, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives iesso, especie de piedra for Latin gypsum.^[2][17]
• 1536 – first record from the Americas, at Cartagena.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records yesero, yesería and yesal.^[3][19]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades prefers the spelling hyeso.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin gypsum and Greek.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. gypsum, plaster: hydrated calcium sulphate, used in building and sculpture because it hardens quickly when mixed with water.^[4][1]
2. A sculpture cast in plaster: En el taller del escultor se guardan varios yesos antiguos.^[4]
3. (medicine) A plaster cast on a broken limb; escayola.^[4][1][14]
4. (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) chalk for writing on a blackboard; tiza.^[15]
5. (Dominican Republic) A shrub with hairy branches and white flowers (Bourreria tomentosa).^[15]

Word family

• enyesar
• yesero
• yesal
• yesón
• yesoso
• yesería

Related words

• aljez
• Latin gypsum
• Portuguese gesso
• Catalan guix

Usage notes

Builders distinguish yeso blanco, the finest, used for the top coat of walls, from the coarser yeso negro;^[4][20] yeso mate mixed with glue water is used to prime surfaces for painting and gilding.^[4][20] In Aragon lavar de yeso means to coat a wall with plaster, smoothing it with the trowel.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. 6, 778
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. yeso
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. yeso
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3936
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3180
7. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 737
9. ^ 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. yeso
10. ^ a b 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. yeso
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 197
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 805
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1034
14. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. yeso
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. yeso
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. yeso
17. ^ 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. yeso
18. ^ 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. yeso
19. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 331
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. yeso