amador

Forms

amador (feminine amadora, masculine plural amadores, feminine plural amadoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin amātor (“lover; admirer”).^[2][1][3][4] Wiktionary also analyses it as from Spanish amar + -dor.^[1] The Latin noun is formed from amō (“to love”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Italian amatore, Old French ameor, Old Occitan amador, Catalan amador, Portuguese amador and French amateur.^[4][6] In modern Provençal it came to mean “tinder fungus”, whence French amadou “tinder”, first in gunners' language.^[4] Wiktionary counts amateur as its doublet.^[1] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[7]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to *amā- (“to take, hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- (“to take hold of”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mozarabic songs already have the word: a jarcha of 1049–1083 says šī bōno 'es amadōrē “if he is a good lover”.^[9][10] In Castilian it first appears in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1235), where the saint's father is amador de derecho, “a lover of justice”.^[9][11][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used amador for a lover in the courtly sense and, with de, for one devoted to something: amador de bondat “a lover of goodness” in Berceo, the leales amadores “loyal lovers” of Amadís (before 1508).^[11][9] Alfonso X's prose has it as an adjective too: cauallos amadores “horses lusting after women”.^[13] Nebrija gave amador de mugeres “lover of women” with Latin mulierosus.^[14] A text of Mexico City of 1571 explains “philosopher” as amador de la sabiduría “lover of wisdom”.^[15]

Autoridades (1726) defined it as “one who loves, one who wishes well”, quoting Mena, Santa Teresa and Góngora.^[16] Nineteenth-century dictionaries record it as an old anatomical name for the oblique muscles of the eye.^[17][18] In current use it is mainly masculine.^[19] In Guatemala the amador is a horseman who takes part in bullfights.^[20] Judeo-Spanish says amador de muzika “music lover”.^[21]

Timeline

• 1049–1083 – a Mozarabic jarcha has amadōrē.^[9]
• c. 1235 – Berceo, Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos: amador de derecho.^[9][12]
• 1254 – the first dated manuscript in the HSMS archive, Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas.^[22]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: amador de mugeres.^[14]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1726 – Autoridades derives it from Latin amator.^[16]
• 1770 – the Academy records it as masculine and feminine.^[23]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as an adjective, also used as a noun, from Latin amator.^[24]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loving; that loves: un padre amador de sus hijos.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A lover, one who loves someone or something.^[2][1][19]
2. (Guatemala) A horseman who takes part in a bullfight.^[20]

Related words

• amar
• amante
• amor
• amateur
• Latin amator
• Portuguese amador

Usage notes

Amador is also a man's name and a surname.^[6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. amador
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 482
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 407
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. amātor
6. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 268
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. amador
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e 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. amador
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. amador
11. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 150
12. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 32
13. ^ 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. amador
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 291
15. ^ 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. amador
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 257
17. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 103
18. ^ 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, 129
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amador
20. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 89
21. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. amadôr
22. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. amador
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 213
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 63