armada

Forms

armada f (plural armadas)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Spanish armar (“to arm”): the feminine of the past participle armado came to be used as a noun.^[2][3][4][1] It corresponds to Medieval Latin armāta (“army; fleet”), the feminine of Latin armātus (“armed”).^[5][6][1] The same noun is Italian armata and French armée, both meaning “army”, while in Spanish it came to mean “fleet”.^[7]

The verb is armō (“to arm, equip”), from arma (“arms, weapons”).^[2][8] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)r-mo- (“fitting”), related to Ancient Greek ἀραρίσκω (ararískō, “to fit together”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Siete Partidas of Alfonso X (1256–1265) have armada for a small fleet of warships.^[10][11] The admiral leads all the ships que son para guerrear, both when there are many together, called flota, and when there are few, que llaman armada.^[10][11] The General estoria (1280) uses armadas for the lines of beaters set in a hunt.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century Fernández de Heredia uses armada for the naval forces of a state.^[13] The DCECH dates the word to 1476 and to Alonso de Palencia's vocabulary of 1490, which has flota de armada de muchas naos.^[2][13] Percyvall in 1591 glosses it “a fleet”.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades in 1726 defined it as a large number of warships under a general, and called the use for a land army a needless recent borrowing from French armée.^[15] The hunting sense, from the Libro de la montería, was marked as old.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has a sense in thieves' slang, the marked cards a cheat carries.^[16][17]

In the Americas the word appears from 1512.^[18] In Argentina, Uruguay and Chile it is the loop of a lasso set for throwing.^[19][20] In Bolivia and Peru it means an instalment.^[19][21] In New Mexico it means “the armed forces”, from English army.^[22] English borrowed the word in the 1530s, first as armado; the fleet of Philip II of 1588 was called the Spanish Armada by 1613.^[23]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – the Siete Partidas have armada for a small war fleet.^[10][11]
• 1280 – the General estoria uses it for the beaters in a hunt.^[12]
• 1476 – the DCECH's first record.^[2][3]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia has flota de armada de muchas naos.^[13]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas.^[18]
• 1530s – English borrows the word.^[23]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades rejects the sense “land army” as a Gallicism.^[15]
• 1917 – Alemany records the American sense “loop of a lasso”.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. The navy, the naval forces of a state: Mi hermano sirve en la Armada.^[4][1]
2. A fleet or squadron (escuadra) of warships.^[4][1]
3. (hunting) A line of hunters waiting for the game driven out in a beat.^[4]
4. (hunting) A line of beaters with dogs set to drive the game towards the hunters.^[4]
5. (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) The way the lazo is arranged for throwing.^[4][20]
6. (Peru) An instalment of a debt.^[20]
7. (thieves' slang) A marked card, the trick a cheat carries in the pack.^[4][17]

Related words

• armar
• arma
• armado
• Medieval Latin armāta
• Italian armata
• French armée
• English armada

Usage notes

It is written with a capital in the sense “navy” (la Armada).^[4][25] Román in Chile distinguished armada, the whole naval force, from escuadra, a group of warships for a given service.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 337
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arma
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. armado
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 83
6. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. armada
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 651
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 699
9. ^ 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. arma
10. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. armada
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 320
12. ^ 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. armada
13. ^ 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. 377
14. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 69
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 392
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 86
17. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 159
18. ^ 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. armada
19. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 107
20. ^ 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. armada
21. ^ Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 20
22. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 31
23. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. armada
24. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 166
25. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. armada
26. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 90