albo

Forms

albo (feminine alba, masculine plural albos, feminine plural albas)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote alvo and aluo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish albo, borrowed from Latin albus (“white”).^[4][5][6][1] Corominas says that outside a few very archaic Castilian or Mozarabic texts it was only ever a Latinism or a poetic word, and that the truly popular outcome, obo, was soon confined to place names such as ⟨Torroba⟩ and ⟨Montovo⟩.^[4] The TDHLE calls it inherited without sound change, and Vox a native word.^[2][7] Its rival blanco is already in the Cantar de mio Cid, and Wiktionary notes that it replaced the Latin word in much of Romance.^[4][1] It is also Portuguese alvo, which is far more popular than the Spanish word, Asturian albu, Italian albo, Romanian alb, Dalmatian jualb and Sardinian alvu (“grey”).^[4][8][9][1]

The Latin word is from Proto-Italic *alβos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”).^[10][1] De Vaan compares Ancient Greek ἀλφός (alphós, “dull-white leprosy”) and ἄλφι (álphi, “barley groats”), and doubts that the river and mountain names often linked with it, such as the Alps and the Elbe, belong here.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date the word to 929, a charter from Valpuesta in Burgos written in Latin that lists II kamisas uirides et tertia alba “two green shirts and a third white one”.^[4][5][2] The Romance boundary description in the charter of Lerma of 1148 has al terrer albo “to the white bank”.^[2] Berceo writes Vestían albos vestidos “they wore white clothes”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds it hard to say when albo stopped being a popular word: it still seems one about 1300, in the Gran conquista de Ultramar and the Castigos of Sancho IV.^[4] The Gran conquista phrase un palafrén tan albo como una nieve “a palfrey as white as snow” is the one the Diccionario de Autoridades quoted in 1726, calling the word purely Latin.^[12][11] The Libro de buen amor has fadas alvas “happy fates”, with the Latin sense “favourable”.^[3] Nebrija in 1495 refers the reader from alvo to blanco.^[2]

The Academy marked the word as poetic in 1869, and wrote in 1884 that it was used almost only in verse.^[13][14] Today it is literary or formal.^[6][15] In Mexico it describes a horse with white on the lower legs, graded by how high the white reaches.^[16] In football it names the players and supporters of clubs that play in white: Colo-Colo in Chile, the Liga Deportiva Universitaria in Quito, Olimpia in Honduras, Alianza in El Salvador and Nacional in Montevideo.^[17]

Timeline

• 929 – a Latin charter from Valpuesta has alba “white”.^[4][2]
• 1148 – the charter of Lerma has terrer albo.^[2]
• c. 1230–1264 – Berceo's Loores has albos vestidos.^[11][3]
• c. 1300 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar has más aluo que la nieue.^[2]
• 1495 – Nebrija refers alvo to blanco.^[2]
• 1714 – first record in the Americas, in Nueva Galicia.^[18]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a purely Latin word.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy notes that it is used only in poetry.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) white: la alba espuma de las olas.^[6][1][15]
2. (Mexico) Of a horse: with white on the lower part of the legs.^[16]
3. (Chile, football) Of or belonging to the club Colo-Colo;^[17] (noun) a player or supporter of it.^[17]

Word family

• alba
• albar
• albillo
• albino
• albor
• alborada
• albura
• albear
• albero
• enjalbegar
• cuatralbo

Related words

• obo
• álbum
• albumen
• albúmina
• Latin albus
• Portuguese alvo

Usage notes

The feminine alba has its own senses, “dawn” and the priest's white vestment; it began as the feminine of this adjective.^[6][4] Terreros records albo also as the name of a coin of Cologne.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. albo
3. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 22
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 118
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. albo
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. albo
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. albo
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 331
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. albu
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. albus
11. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 209
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 169
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 29
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 43
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. albo
16. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 75
17. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. albo
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. albo
19. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 60