esmayao

Spanish

Etymology

Syncopic form of esmayado. Cognate with English dismay, Portuguese desmaiar. Doublet of desmayar

No conjugated forms of the possible verb desmayarse 'to be hungry' have been found. Most likely from the same root as desmayar and dismay but without the -dis suffix.

22-ii-1868 Jable (El Ómnibus, p.3) uses "estomagos desmayados" with the meaning of 'to be hungry', but later works differentiated between desmayar as 'faint' and esmayado as 'hungry'.

"Esmayalse" also attested

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay) /esmaˈʝao/ [ez.maˈʝa.o]
IPA^(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /esmaˈʃao/ [ez.maˈʃa.o]
IPA^(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /esmaˈʒao/ [ez.maˈʒa.o]

Rhymes: -ao
Syllabification: es‧ma‧ya‧o

Adjective

esmayao (feminine esmayaa, masculine plural esmayaos, feminine plural esmayaas)

(Spain, colloquial) famished, hungry. Mainly used in southern Spanish dialects.

Alternative forms

esmallao (it's a colloquial word and the origin isn't clear, leading to pronunciation spelling)
esmayado (without syncope)
esmallado (pronunciation spelling without syncope)