artesano

Forms

artesano (feminine artesana, masculine plural artesanos, feminine plural artesanas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian artigiano (“craftsman”), which came into Spanish through Catalan artesà of Valencia in the 15th century.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas notes that Covarrubias and the Autoridades confirm the Valencian route, and the Autoridades calls it a word of Aragon and Valencia taken from Tuscan.^[2][6] Vox adds that the Italian word was coined in the Renaissance for workers in the visual arts and only later spread to any craft.^[7] The Catalan dictionary of Alcover and Moll derives the Catalan word from Castilian instead.^[8]

Corominas explains the Italian word as a derivative of arte on the model of cortigiano (“courtier”).^[2][3] Wiktionary traces it to an earlier *articiano, from Vulgar Latin *artītiānus, from Latin artītus (“skilled”), the past participle of artiō (“to instruct in the arts”), from ars (“art, skill”).^[1][9] The same Italian word gave French artisan, recorded in 1409 as a Genoese word.^[10] De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *h2r-tí- (“the fitting”).^[11]

The 1884 and 1917 dictionaries still derived the word from Medieval Latin artesanus.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Tafur, about 1440.^[2][3] Alonso's dictionary quotes the passage from Tafur's Andanzas (dated there c. 1457), where a city is praised for its wealth of ombres artesanos “craftsmen”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso de Palencia used the word in 1490 for weavers of carpets, and Nebrija gave Latin artifex as its equivalent.^[14][15] The Autoridades of 1726 defined the artesano as a mechanical craftsman who earns his living with his hands, especially one who keeps a public shop, and quoted the Fueros de Aragón.^[6] Terreros noted that the Castilian word had by then become common throughout Spain.^[16]

Today the DLE notes that the noun is used above all for a person who makes household objects by hand with a personal stamp, as against the factory worker, and the adjective sense “of craftsmanship” has been added.^[4] In Puerto Rico los artesanos was a term of social classification for skilled workers.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – first record, in Tafur.^[2][3]
• c. 1460 – the Catalan form artesà is recorded.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario uses the word.^[14]
• 1589 – first record from the Americas, in Veracruz.^[18]
• 1726 – the Autoridades calls it a word of Aragon and Valencia taken from Tuscan.^[6]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the feminine artesana and an etymology from Low Latin.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to craftsmanship (artesanía); artisanal, made by hand: pan artesano.^[4][1][19]

Noun

1. An artisan or craftsman: a person who practises a manual trade, today especially one who makes objects by hand with a personal style: El artesano talló la mesa en nogal.^[4][1][19]

Word family

• artesanía
• artesanal

Related words

• arte
• artista
• cortesano
• Italian artigiano
• French artisan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 363
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arte
4. ^ a b c d 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. artesano
5. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 51
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 424
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. artesano
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. artesà
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. artesano
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. artisan
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 105
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 176
14. ^ 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. 396
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 297
16. ^ 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, 163
17. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. artesano
18. ^ 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. artesano
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. artesano