algodón

Forms

algodón m (plural algodones)^[1] Older and regional forms are algotón (10th century), alcotón (11th and 13th–15th centuries, and again from the 18th), the Aragonese alcoltón of the 15th century, and alguedón in the Basque provinces of Álava and Biscay.^[2] The variant alcotón appears in Alfonso X's Libros del saber de astronomía and in an Aragonese inventory of 1331.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish algodon, borrowed from Andalusian Arabic قطن (quṭún, “cotton”), from Arabic قطن (quṭn, “cotton”).^[3][4][5][1] The initial syllable is the Arabic definite article, taken over with the noun.^[6][7]

The same Andalusian Arabic word gave Portuguese algodão, Galician algodón and Asturian algodón, and, without the article, Galician cotón, Catalan cotó and Aragonese cotó.^[8] Italian cotone and Sicilian cuttuni also go back to the Arabic noun.^[8] Corominas thinks the word spread to all the languages of western Europe from Catalan or Italian.^[3] Spanish later took cotón “cotton cloth”, a word Autoridades calls recent, from one of these languages or from French coton.^[3]

Corominas refers to Neuvonen for the conditions under which the cotton plant was brought to Spain, from the first half of the 10th century on.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is a Latin inventory from León dated 950, which lists vestments made de algotón “of cotton” beside others of linen.^[2][9] In Castilian texts the word appears in the mid-13th century: a will of 1250 bequeaths colchas bonas blancas de algodon “good white quilts of cotton”, and the Libro de los animales que cazan (1250) has the birds' tear ducts cleaned with wet algodón.^[10] Corominas dates the first record to the third quarter of the 13th century, in Alfonso X's Libros del saber de astronomía and Lapidario.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose the word already names the plant, the fibre round its seeds and the cloth woven from it.^[11] The Lapidario also speaks of a stone del algodón, whose fibre does not burn in the fire and is spun into cloth: the word was used there for asbestos.^[11] The General estoria (c. 1275) mentions robes woven de seda e de algodón “of silk and cotton”.^[10][12]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1513 in Puerto Rico, in a note of half a pound of cotton.^[13] In 1526 Fernández de Oviedo wrote that there was so much cotton growing wild in the Indies that it could be worked better than anywhere else.^[14] Friederici notes that some writers of the conquest took the Arabic word for an American one.^[15]

Echegaray (1887) defines the plant and its fibre, and in the plural the unravelled silk and other threads that were put in an inkwell so that the pen would not take up too much ink.^[16][5] Modern senses add cotton wool for medical and cosmetic use and a swab made of it.^[5][17] Algodón de azúcar or algodón dulce is candy floss.^[17][1] Wiktionary lists the figurative phrase entre algodones.^[1]

Timeline

• 950 – a Latin inventory from León lists vestments de algotón.^[2][4]
• 1250 – a will bequeaths quilts de algodon; the Libro de los animales que cazan uses the word for cotton wool.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the plant, its fibre and asbestos.^[11]
• 1278 – an inventory from Huesca has the form alcotón.^[2]
• 1331 – an Aragonese inventory has alcotón.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin gossipium as the equivalent of algodon.^[18]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1526 – Fernández de Oviedo describes the wild cotton of the Indies.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives the word from the Arabic.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cotton plant, a mallow with yellow flowers whose capsules hold seeds wrapped in long white fibre.^[5][1]
2. The white fibre round the seeds of this plant.^[5]
3. cotton wool: the fibre cleaned and sterilised, sold in rolls, balls or pads: Empapó un poco de algodón en alcohol.^[5][1]
4. A piece of cotton wool used to clean or plug a wound, stop the ears or apply a medicine or cosmetic.^[5]
5. Cotton thread or fabric: una camisa de algodón.^[5][1]
6. (in the plural, dated) Threads of cotton, unravelled silk or shavings placed at the bottom of an inkwell.^[5]
7. candy floss, short for algodón de azúcar.^[1][17]
8. (Venezuela, popular) Money.^[20]

Word family

• algodonero
• algodonal
• algodoncillo
• algodonoso
• algodón de azúcar

Related words

• cotón
• cotonada
• cotonía
• Portuguese algodão
• Catalan cotó
• Italian cotone

Usage notes

Algodón de Castilla is, in the Philippines, a tree of the bombax family whose down, like cotton, is used for cloth and pillows.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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. algodón
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 161
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. algodón
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. algodón
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 53
7. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. algodón
8. ^ a b 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. alcotón
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. algodón
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. algodón
11. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. algodón
12. ^ 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. 236
13. ^ a b 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. algodón
14. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database)
15. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 47
16. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 222
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. algodón
18. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. algodón
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 46
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. algodón