barricada

Forms

barricada f (plural barricadas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French barricade.^[2][3][4][1] The French noun is a derivative of barrique (“cask”) with the suffix -ade, because barricades were made of casks.^[3][4][5] Corominas records it in French shortly before 1588.^[3][4] The DRAE of 2001 and Moliner derive the Spanish word from French or from Italian barricata, while the DLE now names only French.^[6][7][2]

The cask word is Spanish barrica, which Corominas takes from the Gascon form barrique; it goes back to a base Vulgar Latin *barrica of unknown origin, perhaps Gaulish, from which barriga and barril also come.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the dictionary of John Minsheu (1617), which also has a verb barricar.^[3][4] In the CDH the noun appears from about 1619, in Luis Cabrera de Córdoba's history of Philip II, where soldiers take las barricadas de las entradas de las calles “the barricades at the entrances of the streets”.^[8] Earlier CDH hits, in Cieza de León's history of the Peruvian civil wars (la plaza estaba toda barricada “the whole square was barricaded”) and in ordinances of Huamanga (1571), are an adjective or participle, not the noun.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word belonged to military writing: Carlos Coloma used it of the French in Flanders, and Autoridades defined it as a mass of casks put together as a parapet, calling it a French word.^[3][9] Terreros described it as a hasty fortification of barrels, beams, felled trees and carts.^[10] Corominas notes that it became popular only with the French revolutions of 1830 and 1848;^{[3][11][12][13]} Salvá and Gaspar y Roig added that it was mostly built suddenly inside a town, and the Academy's 1884 edition said it was more used in popular insurrections than in the art of war.^{[3][11][12][13]} Baralt, writing in 1855, discussed it among the gallicisms.^[14] The DLE now defines it simply as a street obstacle, especially in popular revolts.^[2]

English used the Spanish-looking form barricado in 1589, in Walter Bigges's account of Drake's West Indian voyage, which AMERLEX lists as a Hispanism.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1553–1584 – Cieza de León uses barricada as an adjective, “barricaded”.^[8]
• 1589 – English Barricados in Bigges's account of Drake's voyage.^[15]
• 1617 – Minsheu's dictionary, the first record of the noun.^[3][4]
• c. 1619 – Cabrera de Córdoba's Historia de Felipe II.^[8]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a French word, quoting Coloma.^[9]
• 1830–1848 – the word becomes popular with the French revolutions.^[3]
• 1856 – first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary describes it as mostly a device of popular insurrections.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A barricade: an obstacle built across a street from whatever is at hand, to block the way or to take cover behind, especially in popular uprisings: Los vecinos levantaron una barricada con muebles y neumáticos.^[2][17][1]

Related words

• barrica
• barril
• French barricade

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. barricada
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barrica
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. barricade
6. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. barricada
7. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barricada
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. barricada
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 566
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 142
12. ^ a b Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 331
13. ^ 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. 139
14. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 115
15. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. barricada
16. ^ 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. barricada
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. barricada