Villaviciosa

Villaviciosa de Asturias

Camino del Norte

Principado de Asturias

Transparent compound: villa (Latin villa 'country house, rural property') + viciosa (Latin vitiosa 'abundant, fertile, lush'). 'The prosperous town', in the medieval sense of land abundant in crops. Charter granted by Alfonso X in 1270.

The medieval adjective vicioso/viciosa preserves the original sense of Latin vitiosus, -a, -um, derived from vitium with the positive value of 'lush, abundant, vigorous'. In old Castilian and Leonese, vicioso qualified fertile lands, leafy plants, well-fattened animals: the modern negative sense (vice = defect, bad habit) is a late 16th-century development. The Asturian Villaviciosa —⁠founded by Alfonso X the Wise in 1270 with generous charters⁠— was named for the agricultural and livestock abundance of the Asón valley, fertile for cereal, apple orchards and cattle. It is one of the toponyms that most confuses the modern Castilian speaker because of the semantic drift of vicioso. Today Villaviciosa is the national capital of cider: five centuries of industrial apple cultivation, protected designation of origin (Sidra de Asturias), and festival of escanciado (the technique of pouring cider from above to aerate it).

Evolution of the name

  1. villa vitiosa medieval Latin 10th — 12th century
  2. Villaviciosa Castilian / Asturleonese from the 13th century

Reflections, to the letter

Enter any chigre (traditional cider house) and order a culín. The waiter will hold the bottle above their head and let a thin stream fall from 80 cm into the glass — the escanciado, an Asturian technique to aerate natural cider. Without it, the cider tastes flat. You are drinking, literally, the name of the village: the medieval villa vitiosa, 'fertile, lush land', in its meaning from before vicioso shifted sense.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Escanciar
An Asturian technique for serving cider: the pourer holds the bottle above their head and lets a thin stream fall from 80 cm into the glass so the impact aerates the liquid. Without escanciado, natural cider tastes flat.
Semantic drift
Change in the meaning of a word over time, while keeping the same form. Vicioso shifted from the positive medieval sense ('lush, fertile') to the modern negative one ('defective, malicious') between the 16th and 18th centuries.
Fuero
A medieval legal privilege granted by a king to a town, conferring special rights and freedoms.

Sources

  • Cano González, A.M. — Diccionario Etimológico de la Toponimia Asturiana
  • Corominas, J. & Pascual, J.A. — Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico
  • Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias — documentación oficial

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Camino del Norte

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Cudillero
  3. Muros de Nalón
  4. Salinas
  5. Avilés
  6. Gijón / Xixón
  7. Niévares
  8. Villaviciosa
  9. Sebrayo
  10. Colunga
  11. La Isla
  12. Ribadesella
  13. Nueva
  14. Celorio
  15. ··· toward the start