fiesta

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish fiesta (“feast, festival”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Late Latin festa (“feast”), originally the plural of Latin festum (“festival, feast”).^[1][7][8] The American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart call the Latin form Vulgar Latin, and the AHD takes it as an alteration of *fēsta.^[9][4] The same Latin word gave English feast, fest and fete by other routes.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A religious festival in Spanish America: Etymonline finds it by 1835, in reference to Mexico, as a Spanish word used in American English.^[3] The OED, Merriam-Webster and Barnhart date it from 1844, in Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, on New Mexico.^{[2][5][4][10]}

Semantic evolution

In English it first named the religious festivals of Spain and Spanish America, and then any festivity or holiday.^[2][6] Gregg (1844) describes the rancheros' families riding in carts to market, "or to fiestas, or on other joyful occasions".^[10] A Texas glossary of 1892 explains it as a holiday, formerly kept on the patron saint's day of a church, town or village, and by extension any festivity, religious or national, even a bullfight.^[10] It is now also used in the names of festivals of all kinds.^[8] Merriam-Webster records fiesta as the name of a deep pink colour.^[5]

Timeline

• 1835 – a Spanish-American religious festival, in reference to Mexico.^[3]
• 1844 – a festival in New Mexico, in Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies.^{[2][5][4][10]}
• 1892 – in Texas, a saint's-day holiday, and by extension any festivity.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. In Spain and Latin America, a religious festival, especially on a saint's day, often with processions and dancing.^[7][5][2]
2. Any holiday, carnival or celebration: The village holds a summer fiesta with music and fireworks.^[7][2][8]
3. A deep pink colour.^[5]

Related words

• feast
• fest
• fete

Usage notes

In the United States the word is regional, chiefly in the Southwest, especially California and Texas.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press