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barracuda

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word barracuda

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1933 Norman D. Jarvis, The Fisheries of Puerto Rico, in the Revista de Obras Públicas More words from the 20th century
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish barracuda
English barracuda

Pronunciation

  • /baraˈkuda/, [ba.raˈku.ð̞a][1]

Forms

barracuda f (plural barracudas)[1]

Etymology

The origin of the word is unknown;[1][2] Wiktionary and Etymonline mention a possible source in a Carib language of the Caribbean.[1][2] The Spanish Wikcionario calls it of uncertain origin, and the DLE gives no etymology.[3][4]

Wiktionary also reports Watkins's view that it comes from Catalan barracó (“snaggletooth”), a Valencian and Catalan word.[1] The Catalan dictionary of Alcover and Moll records the Catalan word as a diminutive of barraca (“hut”), and among its senses gives “a tooth that grows over another”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Puerto Rican lexicography cites the word from a fisheries report of 1933: El pueblo de Puerto Rico no cree que la barracuda grande sea venenosa “The people of Puerto Rico do not believe that the large barracuda is poisonous”.[6][7] The CDH's first hit, of 1912, is Barracuda as the name of an American submarine; the fish itself appears in the memoirs of the Venezuelan Rafael Nogales Méndez (before 1936), who swam ashore followed by sharks and barracudas.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word names the large, voracious, long-bodied fish of warm seas with strong teeth, which can reach two metres.[4][9] The Academy's 2001 edition added that its flesh is edible but becomes poisonous with age, and the DAMER names the resulting illness, ciguatera.[10][11] In the Caribbean and Central America the fish is also called picuda and picúa.[11][6]

The name has also been given to vehicles and boats: Boyd-Bowman records the keys of un Barracuda in Mexico City in 1970, and the CDH has a yacht Barracuda in 1987.[12][8] English took the word from the Spanish of the Americas in the 1670s, first as barracoutha;[2][1] Italian and Portuguese also have barracuda.[2][1]

Timeline

  • 1670s – English records the fish as barracoutha, from the Spanish of the Americas.[2]
  • 1912 – Barracuda as the name of an American submarine, the CDH's first hit.[8]
  • 1933 – a report on the fisheries of Puerto Rico uses the word for the fish.[6][7]
  • before 1936 – Rafael Nogales Méndez mentions barracudas beside sharks in his memoirs, written in Venezuela.[8]
  • 1987 – the first record from Colombia in Boyd-Bowman's dictionary.[12]
  • 2001 – the Academy's dictionary notes that the flesh of older fish is poisonous.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. barracuda: a large, long-bodied, very voracious fish of tropical and temperate seas, with powerful teeth (genus Sphyraena).[4][9][1]

Usage notes

The word is feminine: la barracuda.[4][1] In Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America it competes with picúa and picuda.[11][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
  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. barracuda
  5. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. barracó
  6. ^ a b c d Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. barracuda
  7. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 104
  8. ^ 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. barracuda
  9. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barracuda
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. barracuda
  11. ^ 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. barracuda
  12. ^ 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. barracuda
Cite this entry

“Barracuda.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/barracuda. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·