barril

Forms

barril m (plural barriles)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain; the Academy compares barrica.^[2] Corominas thinks it perhaps came from France, as Wiktionary has it: borrowed from Old French baril.^[3][1] It is common to the western Romance languages, Portuguese barril, Catalan barril and Occitan barril with /rr/, which Old French and the Italian dialects also show, and Italian barile, which the REW considers perhaps French.^[3][4] The oldest record in Low Latin is Medieval Latin barriclos in the phrase “barrels bound with iron” of the Carolingian Capitulare de Villis, of the early 9th century.^[3] The Old French word is recorded from the 12th century, and a Catalan document has barrilo as early as 977.^[3] From Romance the word passed early into the Arabic of Spain and North Africa.^[3]

On Corominas's French hypothesis Vulgar Latin *barriculum, a diminutive of *barrica, gave the Old French word with a palatal /ʎ/ that soon became /l/.^[3] The DHLF and Bénaben derive the French word from the Medieval Latin form “small cask”, a contraction of this diminutive.^[5][6] But the Catalan and Occitan word barral, found from the 13th century, makes Corominas think that *barrile and *barrale existed from the start beside the form in -ica, from the same stem with other endings.^[3] He derives the cask word taken from Gascon in the 17th century, barriga “belly” and this word from one base, whose origin is unknown and perhaps Gaulish; the BDELC calls it pre-Roman.^[7][4] He rejects Brüch's derivation from Latin bāris (“boat”), which left no Romance descendants, and holds that the old idea of deriving it from Frankish *bera (“bier”) must be abandoned because of the early and almost general /rr/.^[3] García de Diego takes the Frankish or Lombard word for a bier, “a vessel for carrying”, as the source, with the influence of the derivatives of barro.^[8] Covarrubias thought the name came from the clay it was made of, or from its belly-like shape.^[9]

As the unit of measure for oil the word is calqued on English barrel.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's first record is in the Libro de los fueros de Castiella (c. 1260), where a man digs up two darts he had buried the night before & vn barril de vino “and a barrel of wine”.^[10][11] Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) recommends that those with diseases of the spleen eat and drink from vessels and barriles of tamarisk wood.^[11][12] Corominas's first record is the Gran Conquista de Ultramar (c. 1300).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Juan Ruiz uses barril for an earthenware jar with a big belly.^[13] Covarrubias defines it first as such a jar, used by harvesters and field workers for their water, and then as the small casks for olives, pickled fish, wine, ships' water and gunpowder, and records the proverb De cosario a cosario no se lleuan mas que los barriles “between corsairs only the barrels are taken”, said of rogues who cannot cheat each other.^[9] In 1770 the Academy noted that the earthenware vessel was by then called botija, and in 1817 it marked that sense as archaic.^[14][15] Terreros described the barrels used as measures of wine and oil in Nice, Genoa and Savona.^[16]

Today it is also the unit of measure of the oil industry, 158.9 litres, and colloquially a very fat person.^[2] In Almería, Córdoba and Granada it means a glass bottle; in Chile, an ornamental knot on the reins; in the Dominican Republic and parts of Central America, a six-sided kite.^{[2][17][18][19]} In Cuba irse al barril is to fail, from the rubbish barrel.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1260 – the Libro de los fueros de Castiella, the first record in the DEMel.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria.^[12]
• c. 1300 – the Gran Conquista de Ultramar, the first record in Corominas.^[3][4]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses it of an earthenware jar.^[13]
• 1490 – the derivative barrilete “oil vessel”.^[4]
• 1517 – the first record from the Americas, barrels of mackerel and sardines in Puerto Rico.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb De cosario a cosario no se lleuan mas que los barriles.^[9]
• 1770 – the Academy notes that the earthenware vessel is now called botija.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Low Latin barrillus and a Celtic bari.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. A barrel or cask: a container, usually cylindrical, of wood or metal, for keeping and carrying liquids and goods: un barril de vino tinto.^[2][1]
2. An earthenware vessel with a big belly and a narrow neck, in which field workers keep their drinking water.^[2]
3. An ornamental knot, usually shaped like a small barrel.^[2]
4. A barrel, the unit of measure of the oil industry, equal to 158.9 litres.^[2][1]
5. (colloquial) A very fat person.^[2][23]
6. (Almería, Córdoba, Granada) A glass bottle.^[2]
7. (Dominican Republic) A six-sided kite.^[18][24]

Word family

• embarrilar
• barrilete

Related words

• barrica
• barriga
• French baril
• Portuguese barril

Usage notes

Ser un barril de pólvora is said of a very tense, explosive situation.^[2][25]

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 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. barril
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, 525
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barril
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 524
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 284
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. barril
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. barril
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. barril
13. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 71
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 453
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 121
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, 225
17. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 229
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. barril
19. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 139
20. ^ Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 93
21. ^ 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. barril
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 140
23. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. barril
24. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. barril
25. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barril