tizo

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin tītiō via the nominative form. Alternatively a back-formation from tizón. Cf. the variation in Italian between tizzo and tizzone. According to Coromines and Pascual, first attested in Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈtiθo/ [ˈt̪i.θo]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /ˈtiso/ [ˈt̪i.so]
• (Spain) Rhymes: -iθo
• (Latin America) Rhymes: -iso
• Syllabification: ti‧zo

Noun

tizo m (plural tizos)

1. charred piece of wood
   • 1599, Mateo Alemán, Primera parte de Guzmán de Alfarache , (ed. by José María Micó, Madrid: Cátedra, 1992):

     vino mi amo con un terrible dolor de costado en las sienes, y estando en el hogar sólo un tizo me quiso aporrear: que para qué gastaba tanta leña, que se quemaría la casa.

     My master came in with a terrible headache on the side. As I was at the hearth, he hit me with a piece of charred wood, scolding me asking why I was using up so much firewood, because the house could get burnt.

Further reading

• “tizo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1983) “tizón”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes V (Ri–X), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 512