ancla

Forms

ancla f (plural anclas)^[1] Old Spanish also had a form ancola, which García de Diego and the REW record beside ancla.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ancŏra (“anchor”).^[4][5][6][1] Corominas explains that the learned form áncora and the popular one have lived on side by side.^[4] The popular word, instead of ancra, came out as ancla by hypercorrection: speakers who knew the vulgar and Leonese habit of saying /kr/ for /kl/ (as in cravo for clavo) took the form with /kr/ for one of these and corrected it.^[4] Since many sea terms came from Galician-Portuguese, he adds, the form with /kr/ would have looked Galician or Portuguese.^[4]

The same Latin word is Italian ancora, French ancre and Catalan àncora, and it reached Basque aingura.^[3][2][7]

The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek ἄγκυρα (ánkura, “anchor”).^[8][9][6] Wiktionary calls the borrowing likely, but leaves open the possibility that the Latin and Greek nouns are cognates.^[1] The DHLF derives the Greek noun from a stem ἀγκ- (ank-) “bent, hooked”, the idea being that of a hook.^[10] Beekes rejects an inherited formation, since its suffix -ῡρα (-ūra) is typical of Pre-Greek words.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the customs tariffs of Cantabria, of about 1295, in a list of goods that paid no toll: Anclas nin fachas nin destrales nin açadas […] non dan peaie “anchors, axes, hatchets, hoes … pay no toll”.^[12][13][4] The sense is already the ship's anchor.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the popular ancla competed with the learned áncora, which Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses for ships casting anchor.^[14] In López de Ayala's Rimado de palacio (late 14th century) one manuscript reads anclas and another áncoras in the same line.^[12] Phrases such as echar ancla “to cast anchor” and alzar las anclas “to weigh anchor” appear in 15th-century chronicles and travel accounts.^[13][12]

In 1786 Terreros noted that sailors said ancla, while áncora was the common word.^[15] The Academy's dictionary has given ancla as the nautical word since 1770, with a sense “hand” in thieves' cant (germanía).^[16][17] Today the DLE adds an architectural sense: a metal piece at the end of a tie rod, and any piece that binds the parts of a building.^[6] In Chile an ancla is a large store that draws customers to a shopping centre, and in Puerto Rico a news anchor.^[18][19] The word passed into the languages of the Philippines, such as Tagalog angkla.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1295 – first record, in the customs tariffs of Cantabria.^[12][13]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses the learned áncoras for a fleet's anchors.^[14]
• c. 1406 – González de Clavijo's account of his embassy to Tamerlane has echaron ancla en el puerto.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin anchora for ancla de nave.^[20][21]
• 1528 – first record from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata: mandó alzar anclas.^[22]
• c. 1560 – the verb anclar appears in Las Casas.^[5][4]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines ancla as the same as áncora or ferro.^[23]
• 1786 – Terreros notes that sailors say ancla but most people áncora.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives the word from áncora.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) An anchor: a heavy iron hook with two or more arms, let down on a chain to the bottom of the water to hold a ship in place; also figurative: El barco pasó la noche con el ancla echada frente a la isla.^[6][25][1]
2. (architecture) A piece of hard metal fixed at the end of a tie rod, and generally any piece that binds or strengthens the parts of a building.^[6][26]
3. (thieves' cant) The hand (mano).^[6][17]
4. (Chile) A large store that draws customers to a shopping centre (also as an adjective: tienda ancla).^[18]
5. (Puerto Rico) A radio or television news presenter, who reads the news from the studio.^[18][19]

Word family

• anclar
• anclaje
• anclote

Related words

• Latin ancora
• French ancre

Usage notes

The DLE records ancla de la esperanza, a very large anchor kept for emergencies, and ancla de leva.^[6] Common phrases are echar el ancla or echar anclas “to anchor” and levar anclas “to weigh anchor”.^[25][27]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 513
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ancora
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 253
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ancla
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ancla
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 43
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ancora
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ancre
11. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. ancla
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ancla
14. ^ a b 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. ancla
15. ^ a b 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. 1, 103
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 237
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 63
18. ^ 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. ancla
19. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. ancla
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 293
21. ^ 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. 302
22. ^ 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. ancla
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 283
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 64
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ancla
26. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ancla
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 71