cuyo

Spanish

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈkuʝo/ [ˈku.ʝo]

• IPA^(key): (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay) /ˈkuʝo/ [ˈku.ʝo]
• IPA^(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /ˈkuʃo/ [ˈku.ʃo]
• IPA^(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /ˈkuʒo/ [ˈku.ʒo]

• Audio (Latin America):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʝo
• Syllabification: cu‧yo

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Spanish cuyo, from Latin cuius, genitive of quī (“who, which”, interrogative and relative pronoun). Secondarily developed grammatical agreement with the thing possessed, thereby becoming a determiner rather than a pronoun in the strict sense. The grammatical agreement is attested in Plautus and classical Latin texts, though uncommonly.

Determiner

cuyo m sg (feminine cuya, masculine plural cuyos, feminine plural cuyas)

1. whose

   la mujer cuyos hijos son cocineros

   the woman whose sons are cooks

   • 1605, Cervantes, Don Quixote 1.1:

     En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme […]

     In some place of La Mancha, whose name I don't want to remember […]

Etymology 2

From cuy +‎ -o, cf. pijuyo.

Noun

cuyo m (plural cuyos)

1. (El Salvador) Alternative form of cuy

Further reading

• “cuyo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014