bastón

Forms

bastón m (plural bastones)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bastō (“stick”), a derivative of bastum (“stick”), according to Corominas.^[2][3][4][5] The Late Latin noun is recorded only once, in a text of the 4th century, but every Romance language has a form that continues the derivative: Italian bastone, French bâton, Catalan bastó and Portuguese bastão.^[2][4] Wiktionary instead takes it from Old French baston (“stick, truncheon”), and the Academy calls it of unknown origin, comparing the Italian and French words.^[1][6]

The origin of the Late Latin noun is unclear.^[2][7] Most scholars, Corominas says, derive it from a Vulgar Latin verb meaning “to carry”, the source of bastar, perhaps related to the Late Latin basterna (“litter”) and to burdubasta (“muleteer”), used by Petronius;^[1][7] Gamillscheg proposed a Celtic origin.^[2] Wiktionary connects the verb with Ancient Greek βαστάζω (bastázō, “to lift, carry”), while the REW calls the origin unknown and doubts the link with the Greek verb.^[1][7] The DICCA-XV relates the Late Latin noun to battuō (“to beat”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH dates the first record to 1074;^[9] DEMel has the form bastone in a charter of Pedro I of 1102.^[2][9] In the 13th-century fueros the word names the stick of a judicial duel, as in batalla de escudo & de baston “combat with shield and staff” in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247.^[10] About the same time a translation of the Gospel of Matthew uses it for a walking staff: No trayades talega en carrera, ni dos sayas ni calçado ni baston “take no bag for the road, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor staff”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the staff for walking the word came to mean a staff of authority: in the 15th century it was the rod carried by knights, and in 17th-century Peru and Mexico a bastón de capitán general or a staff handed over as a badge of office.^[11][12] Terreros noted that the bastón of a general, captain or magistrate denoted authority, while a staff used only for support was usually called báculo.^[13] The DCECH records the sense “suit of clubs in the card pack” from 1544, from which the back-formation basto (1554) was made; the plural bastones in this sense is now obsolete.^[2][3][6] Covarrubias and others of the early 17th century used it for a shoot of a tree, a sense that survives in Salamanca for the young shoot of an oak.^[2][14]

Later senses include the roller of silk weaving, a vertical stripe in heraldry and the rod cell of the retina, a use the DTME traces to French bâtonnet of 1861.^[6][15] In Mexico and Central America it is the baton twirled by girls in parades, in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico a steering-wheel lock, and in Chile a long roll of dough cut into loaves.^[16][17][18]

Timeline

• 1074 – first record, according to the DCECH and the BDELC.^[2][3]
• 1102 – bastone in a charter of Pedro I.^[9]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón speak of a batalla de escudo & de baston.^[10]
• c. 1254–1270 – a translation of the Gospel of Matthew uses it for a traveller's staff.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates it with Latin fustis and sudes.^[8]
• 1544 – first record in the sense “card of the suit of clubs”.^[2]
• 1551 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1607 – first record of the derivative bastonazo.^[3]
• 1786 – Terreros describes the bastón as a sign of authority.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A walking stick or cane, usually with a handle and a metal tip: Desde la operación camina con bastón.^[6][1]
2. A staff of command, carried as a symbol of authority (bastón de mando); figuratively, authority itself.^[6][19]
3. A ski pole.^[20][19]
4. In silk weaving, the round roller on which the finished cloth is wound before it passes to the beam.^[6]
5. (biology) A rod cell of the retina.^[6][1][15]
6. (heraldry) A vertical stripe dividing the shield, as in the arms of Aragon.^[6][1]
7. (Mexico, Central America) A baton twirled by girls in parades.^[16]
8. (obsolete, in the plural) The suit of clubs in the Spanish pack, now bastos.^[6]

Word family

• bastonazo
• bastonear
• bastonero
• bastonada
• basto
• bastoncillo

Related words

• vástago
• bastar
• French bâton
• Italian bastone

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 339
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bastón
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 950
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 77
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. bastón
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 983
8. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. bastón
9. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. bastón
10. ^ 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. bastón
11. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 504
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. bastón
13. ^ a b 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, 229
14. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 280
15. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. bastón
16. ^ 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. bastón
17. ^ 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. bastón
18. ^ Medina, José Toribio (1927), Chilenismos: apuntes lexicográficos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Universo, p. 21
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bastón
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. bastón