alboroque

Forms

alboroque m^[1] Medieval texts have many forms: albaroc, aluaroc, albaroch, alvaroch, albaroque, aluoroque, alboroc and others; the forms with a before the stress are the most frequent in the 12th and 13th centuries.^[2][3]

Etymology

Corominas takes it from Andalusian Arabic burúk, which he places in the same family as Arabic بركة (baraka, “blessing”).^[4][5][6] The DLE derives it, with a “perhaps”, from a Hispano-Arabic *alborók, from عربون (ʿarbūn, “earnest money”).^[1][7] Moliner explains the ending of that form as a Romance pejorative suffix.^[8] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente take the Andalusian form from the Hebrew word for “blessed” that opens the ritual blessing of God, said on joyful occasions.^[9]

Covarrubias had already traced the word to a Hebrew verb meaning both “to bless” and “to offer a gift”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades agreed that it was Arabic, perhaps taken from Hebrew, but found the origin hard to settle.^[10][11] Dozy also accepted Covarrubias's link with the Hebrew verb for blessing, whose noun meant a present as well as a blessing.^[12]

The same word is Portuguese alboroque and Portuguese alborque, Galician alboroque, and, taken from Castilian, Catalan alboroc and Catalan alboloc and the Basque alboke of Biscay, Gipuzkoa and Upper Navarre.^[4][13] In Spanish it competed with robra, a word of Latin origin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears as albaroc in a charter of 965 copied in the Becerro of San Pedro de Cardeña, and again in 1014.^[3][5][4] The Latin acts of the Council of León of 1020 have alvaroch, alvoroch and alvoroc, and their old Castilian translation alvaroc.^[12][2] In these documents it is the extra payment or gift beyond the agreed price that seals a sale: a deed of 1251 sells estates por pretio & por aluaroch “for the price and for the alboroque”.^[14][2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval law it was a fixed part of a sale: the Libro de los fueros de Castiella (before 1284) charges one dinero in each sueldo as aluoroque.^[14] By the early 15th century the gift had become a drink shared when a sale was made: Mosé Arragel's translation of the Bible says men drink when a sale is concluded, and that this is called alboroque.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 described it as what is given to the broker who arranges a sale, or to a workman beyond his wage, and said that drinking the alboroque in the villages when land, a vineyard or a house was bought was very common.^[10]

The Diccionario de Autoridades extended it to any present made in thanks for a service, and to what is given to a master or workman when he finishes a job.^[11] The Academy's 1817 dictionary made it the food and drink offered by buyer or seller to those who took part in the sale.^[15] Gaspar y Roig added a regional sense, the treat a young man gives his friends when he has a sweetheart, and the phrases echar el alboroque “to drink” and pagar el alboroque “to stand a treat”.^[16] The present dictionary keeps the sale gift and adds a gift or treat given to reward a service or for any happy occasion.^[1]

Timeline

• 965 – albaroc in a charter of the Becerro of Cardeña.^[3][5]
• 1020 – alvaroch in the Latin acts of the Council of León.^[12][2]
• c. 1250 – aluaroc in the Castilian text of the Cortes of León.^[14]
• before 1284 – aluoroque in the Libro de los fueros de Castiella.^[14]
• 1359 – the modern form alboroque in a Leonese document.^[4]
• 1422–1433 – Mosé Arragel's Bible describes the drink that seals a sale.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the broker's gift and derives it from Hebrew.^[10]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades widens it to any gift in thanks for a service.^[11]
• 1853 – Gaspar y Roig records echar el alboroque and pagar el alboroque.^[16]
• 1864 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gift or treat that the buyer, the seller or both give to those who helped to bring about a sale.^[1][8]
2. A gift or treat given as a reward for a service, or to celebrate any happy occasion: Pagó el alboroque a los vecinos cuando terminó la casa.^[1][8]

Related words

• robra
• Portuguese alboroque
• Catalan alboroc

Usage notes

Moliner gives robra, robla, corrobra and juanillo as words of the same meaning.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. alboroque
2. ^ a b c d 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. alboroque
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. alboroque
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 120
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alboroque
6. ^ Eguílaz y Yanguas, Leopoldo de (1886), Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, portuguesas, valencianas y bascongadas) de origen oriental, Granada: La Lealtad, p. 141
7. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. alboroque
8. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alboroque
9. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. albaroque
10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 104
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 171
12. ^ a b c Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 91
13. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 314
14. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alboroque
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 38
16. ^ a b Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 86
17. ^ 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. alboroque