barro

barro¹ mud, clay

Pronunciation

• /ˈbaro/, [ˈba.ro]^[1]

Forms

barro m (plural barros)^[1]

Etymology

The word for mud and clay is inherited from Old Spanish barro, inherited from Vulgar Latin *barrum (“clay”), an old pre-Roman word that Spanish shares with Portuguese, Gascon and Languedocian.^[2][3][1] The DLE suggests a Celtic origin and compares Middle Irish broch (“rubbish”) and Gaulish *barros (“thicket”).^[4][1] Wiktionary takes it to be Paleo-Hispanic or Iberian, and García de Diego Celtic or Iberian.^[1][5] Covarrubias in 1611 thought it Arabic, from a word for uncultivated land, or Greek, from the word for “weight”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades repeated the Arabic explanation.^[6][7]

The same word is Portuguese barro, Galician barro, Asturian barru, Aragonese bardo, Italian barro and Old Occitan bart.^[3][8][1] The REW notes that it is missing in northern France.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is Abraham de Toledo's Moamín, a treatise on hunting animals (1250, in a copy of the later 13th century), which advises keeping hawks on perchas de barro acerca de tierra “perches of clay near the ground”.^[9] Alfonso X's Picatrix (1256), the oldest original, has un tiesto de barro “an earthenware pot”.^[9][10] Corominas dates the word 1250–1280.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts barro was both mud and potter's clay, and Alfonso X uses it for the bitumen mortar of the Tower of Babel.^[11][12] Nebrija rendered it with Latin argilla.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as earth mixed with water, whether mud made by rain or a mixture for walls, bricks, tiles and pots, and also as a drinking vessel of scented clay, a búcaro.^[7] The Academy's 1817 edition recorded the proverb Barro y cal encubren mucho mal, of a fair surface hiding what is bad.^[14] The 1899 edition added the figurative sense “worthless thing, trifle”, and the DLE today also has “dishonour, moral degradation”.^[15][4]

In the River Plate barro is a blunder made through carelessness, usually without ill intent.^[16][17][18]

Timeline

• 1137 – the DEMel's earliest record, in a document of the reconquest of the Ebro valley.^[19]
• 1250 – Abraham de Toledo's Moamín has perchas de barro.^[9]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix has un tiesto de barro.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin argilla.^[13]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, on the Río de la Plata.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Arabic or Greek.^[6]
• 1817 – the Academy records Barro y cal encubren mucho mal.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “worthless thing”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. mud: a mass of earth mixed with water.^[4][1]
2. The mud that forms in the streets when it rains: Volvió del parque con las botas llenas de barro.^[4]
3. clay: a mouldable clayey material that hardens when fired, used in pottery and ceramics.^[4][1]
4. A vessel or ornament made of clay.^[4]
5. dishonour, moral degradation.^[4][21]
6. A worthless thing, a trifle.^[4]
7. (Uruguay, Argentina, colloquial) A blunder made through carelessness or haste.^[18][16]

Word family

• barreño
• barrero
• barrizal
• barrial
• embarrar
• guardabarros
• salvabarros

barro² pimple

Etymology tree of barro²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vārus

Spanish barro

From the same root · barro²

Latin vāra ← vārus

Pronunciation

• /ˈbaro/, [ˈba.ro]^[1]

Forms

barro m (plural barros)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a pimple is inherited from Latin varus (“pimple, pustule”).^{[22][2][23][1]} Corominas explains the double /r/ of the Spanish and Portuguese word by the influence of verruga; a real blend of the two words gave Asturian bérrago (“tumour in cattle”) and Galician bérrego.^[22] Álava and the north of Burgos keep the single /r/ in the forms ⟨varo⟩ and ⟨baro⟩.^[22][24]

The same word is Portuguese barro and Old Occitan vare (“larva”); Catalan barb is a slight change of an older ⟨bar⟩, made by folk etymology after barba (“beard”).^[22][25] It passed early into Andalusian Arabic, which formed from it a derivative meaning “pimply”.^[22]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *waros; de Vaan compares Lithuanian vìras (“tapeworm larva; pimple”) and marks the Indo-European reconstruction as uncertain.^[26][1] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“raised spot”) and relates it to varix (“varicose vein”) and verrūca (“wart”).^[1] It is not the same word as the adjective “bow-legged”, which de Vaan treats separately.^[26]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DME's first record is Chirino's Menor daño, of 1428 but printed in 1505, which has barros del rostro “pimples of the face”.^[11] Corominas dates the word to Nebrija (c. 1495), who already writes it with b- and -rr-: Barro que nace en la cara “a pimple that grows on the face”, Latin varus.^[22][2][11]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 described the barro as a reddish mark on the face, chiefly of youths beginning to grow a beard, and, following Nebrija, traced it to the Latin word for a pimple.^[6] The Academy's 1817 edition used the plural for these marks, and also for small tumours on mules and cattle.^[14] In Soria the word names a swelling raised on livestock by the larvae of the horsefly, and in Cespedosa it came to mean the horsefly itself.^[22] The Canary Islands use it for a pimple, and Leonese for a grub that grows under the skin of cattle.^[27]

Timeline

• 1428 – Chirino writes of barros del rostro, in the 1505 edition.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin varus.^[22][11]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “wheals, pimples”.^[28]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “red mark on the face” and derives it from varus.^[6]
• 1817 – the Academy records the sense “small tumours in cattle”.^[14]
• 1917 – Alemany derives it from Latin varus.^[29]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pimple: each of the small reddish spots that come out on the face, especially of youths who are beginning to grow a beard.^[23][1]
2. (colloquial) A closed comedo, a comedón.^[30][1]
3. Each of the small tumours that form on mules and cattle.^[23]

Word family

• barroso