hacienda

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish hacienda (“landed estate, plantation; domestic work”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} taken from its American Spanish use for an estate or ranch in the country.^[3] The Spanish word was earlier Old Spanish facienda,^[3][7][8] beside Portuguese fazenda,^[2] from Latin facienda (“things to be done”),^[2][6][5][3] the neuter plural of faciendus, the future passive participle (gerundive) of faciō (“to do, make”),^[5][9][6] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[3][6] Skeat glosses the Spanish word as originally "employment".^[8] The change from Latin f- to Spanish h- is regular, as in hacer (“to do”).^[3] For a gerundive used as a noun, Etymonline and Klein compare agenda.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An estate with a dwelling house in Spain or its colonies: the 1989 edition of the OED dated the first record to 1717,^[10] and Dictionary.com gives 1710–20.^[9] Barnhart finds it in 1758, in a translation of a travel book about South America,^[11] and Etymonline gives 1760.^[3] The current OED's first quotation is from 1772, in J. Adams's translation of A. de Ulloa's Voyage to South America,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives about 1772.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has always referred to Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, for an estate or plantation with its house, and also for a stock-raising, mining or manufacturing establishment in the country.^[2][12][5] In the American Southwest it came to mean especially the central buildings or main house of a ranch: the Dictionary of American Regional English quotes Pike's account of the hacienda of Pattos in New Mexico in 1810, and a 1956 survey of West Texas found it in use in only three counties.^[13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a Southwestern ranch house with low rambling lines and wide porches,^[5] and in Spanish-speaking countries the state revenue and its administration.^[5] The owner of a hacienda is a hacendado.^[3]

Timeline

• 1717 – an estate or plantation with a dwelling house, in Spain or a Spanish colony.^[10] Barnhart's first record is from 1758,^[11] Etymonline's 1760,^[3] and the current OED's 1772.^[2]
• 1810 – in New Mexico, the central compound or main house of an estate.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. In Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, a large estate, such as a ranch or plantation, with a house on it.^[5][12][2]
2. The main house of such an estate or ranch.^[12][5][13]
3. A stock-raising, mining or manufacturing establishment in the country, or its buildings.^[12][5][2]
4. (chiefly Southwestern US) A ranch house with low rambling lines and wide porches.^[5][13]
5. In a Spanish-speaking country, the state revenue or the department that manages it.^[5]

Related words

• fact
• agenda
• factory
• do

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d 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