azor

Forms

azor m (plural azores)^[1] Old Spanish forms are azttore (941), acetore in the Glosas Silenses, adtor in the Cantar de mio Cid, and açor from the Libro de Alexandre on.^[2][3] Astor appears in the Libro de buen amor, and Asturian has avizolo and gavizolo, reshaped after ave.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish aztor (also adtor), inherited from Vulgar Latin acceptor (“goshawk”), which replaced the classical accipiter (“hawk”).^[2][4][5][1] Corominas traces the sound changes as acetor > actor > açor, and notes that the old ⟨ç⟩ was voiceless.^[2] Wiktionary compares the simplification of the cluster in rezar and plazo.^[1] Machado suggests that the Mozarabs, who knew Arabic falconry, may have helped the change from astor to the form with ⟨ç⟩.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese açor, Catalan astor, Old Occitan austor, French autour and Italian astore.^[2][7][1] The Vulgar Latin noun is found from Lucilius on, above all in vulgar and late texts.^[2] It was remade as if it were an agent noun “taker” of accipiō (“to receive, take”).^[2][8]

De Vaan reconstructs *aku-petri- (“having swift or pointed wings”) for the classical word, with the first part from Proto-Indo-European *HHḱu- (“swift”), and compares Ancient Greek ὠκύπτερος (ōkúpteros, “swift-winged”).^[8][9] Corominas too regards the Latin word as a parallel of the Greek adjective, influenced by the verb for “take”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found as azttore in a document of 941, and as acetore in the Glosas Silenses of the second half of the 10th century.^[2][4] The Cantar de mio Cid has the form adtor.^[3][2] The local laws treat the bird as property of value: the Fuero de Sepúlveda fines anyone who takes the eggs of a goshawk, and the Fuero de Cáceres punishes a stranger caught taking azores, o falcones, o gauilanes “goshawks, or falcons, or sparrowhawks”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the goshawk was a hunting bird of falconry, and a treatise on hunting birds from Alfonso X's scriptorium names kinds such as the açor bermejo “red goshawk”.^[12] In 1726 Autoridades described it as a kind of falcon used to hunt pigeons, partridges and hares, and quoted the proverb la doncella y el azor, las espaldas hacia el sol “the maiden and the goshawk, backs to the sun”.^[13] It also recorded the cant sense “daring thief” from Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary, which the Academy defined as ladrón de presa alta until 1884.^[13][14][15]

The dictionaries long disagreed about its origin.^[13][15] Autoridades reported Covarrubias's idea that the bird was named after Asturias, as if Astor, and two Arabic etymologies by Urrea and Guadix.^[13] The Academy's 1884 edition derived it from Latin astur.^[15]

The verb azorar (1495) first meant “to make wild”; its modern sense “to fluster, alarm” was fixed about 1600 and comes from the effect that the goshawk's pursuit has on other birds.^[2][4] Cetrero “falconer” is a shortened form of acetrero (1386), from the old form acetor.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 941 – first record, as azttore.^[2][4]
• second half of the 10th century – the Glosas Silenses have acetore.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has adtor.^[3][2]
• c. 1250 – the form azor becomes usual.^[4]
• 1250–1300 – a treatise from Alfonso X's scriptorium describes kinds of goshawks.^[12]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin accipiter for açor, and records the derivative azorar.^[16][4]
• 1549 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the cant sense “thief” and the proverb about the maiden and the goshawk.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ornithology) The northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis): a diurnal bird of prey about half a metre long, dark above and white with dark markings below, which hunts by flying fast between trees.^[5][18][1]
2. (falconry) azor desbañado: a goshawk that has not bathed on the days it is flown.^[5]

Word family

• azorar
• cetrero
• cetrería
• azoramiento

Related words

• Latin accipiter
• Portuguese açor
• Catalan astor

Usage notes

A separate, obsolete azor meant “town wall” and comes from Andalusian Arabic السور (assúr), from Arabic سور (sūr).^[5][19] It is found as azore in 1076 and in the Fuero de Madrid of 1202, and never took root in the language.^[20][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 436
3. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 61
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. azor
5. ^ 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. azor
6. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 76
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 464
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. accipiter
10. ^ a b 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. 474
11. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. azor
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. azor
13. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 519
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 111
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 126
16. ^ 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. azor
17. ^ 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. azor
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. azor
19. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 249
20. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 437