barrica

Forms

barrica f (plural barricas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Occitan barrique (“cask”), a word of Gascony, which goes back to a base Vulgar Latin *barrica of unknown and perhaps Gaulish origin.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives the chain as barrica and the base, which it traces to Gaulish *baril (“cask, barrel”).^[1]

Corominas places the word in the wine trade of Bordeaux: the Occitan word appears in a Gascon charter of 1476, French barrique in 1509, and in the mid-16th century Robert Estienne still called the French word Gascon.^[2] Only in Gascon, he argues, would the voiceless consonant of the suffix ⟨-ica⟩ survive; the suffix itself is Gaulish, as are other words of the cooper's trade, so the REW's Gaulish origin for the base is likely.^[2] Portuguese barrica is also a recent word, and Catalan has only the diminutive Catalan barricó, recorded in 1423.^[2]

The same base, by the regular Castilian voicing of /k/ to /ɡ/, gave barriga “belly”, and its root is also behind barril.^[2][3][5] García de Diego instead groups both words under Frankish *bera, a Germanic word for a bier or vessel.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first real record is in Juan Escalante de Mendoza's Itinerario de navegación of 1575, which says that ships are measured “in Flanders and France” by so many barricas or sacks of wool.^[7] Its earlier hit, of 1516, is a place name in Biscay.^[7] The DCECH's first records are of 1639, for barrels used in fortification at the siege of Fuenterrabía, and of 1644, for casks shipped by sea.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defined the word as a wooden cask of various sizes used to ship oil, wine, butter or biscuit by sea, and quoted the siege of Fuenterrabía, where the enemy built a parapet of barricas.^[8] Terreros gave the French barrique as its equivalent and recorded it also as a measure of Amsterdam.^[9] Today the DLE defines it as the cask used to make and keep wine; the barrica bordelesa holds 225 litres.^[4][10]

In Cuba the word came to mean, above all, the cask of French red wine.^[11][10] In the Canaries it names a cask of middling size, between the barril and the bocoy, and an open cask used to keep salted pork.^[12] From the 1690s it appears in documents from Mexico, Costa Rica, Santo Domingo and the Río de la Plata, for casks of brandy, flour, wine and oil.^[13]

Timeline

• 1476 – the Occitan word is recorded in a Gascon charter.^[2]
• 1509 – French barrique is first recorded.^[2]
• 1575 – Escalante de Mendoza uses barricas of the cargo of ships in Flanders and France.^[7]
• 1617 – the derivative barricada is first recorded, in Minsheu's dictionary.^[2][3]
• 1639 – the DCECH's first record, for barrels at the siege of Fuenterrabía.^[2][3]
• 1693 – first record in the Americas, barricas de aguardiente in Mexico City.^[13]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a cask for shipping goods by sea.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from barril.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cask or barrel of middling size, especially one used to make and age wine: Dejaron el vino un año en barrica.^[4][15][1]

Word family

• barricada

Related words

• barril
• barriga
• French barrique

Usage notes

Barrica bordelesa is a cask of 225 litres.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 524
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barrica
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. barrica
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. barrica
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. barrica
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. barrica
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 566
9. ^ 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, 225
10. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 229
11. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 191
12. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. barrica
13. ^ 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. barrica
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 139
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barrica