berrueco

Forms

berrueco m (plural berruecos)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unclear: the DLE calls it of unknown origin, and Moliner asks whether it is pre-Roman.^[2][3] Corominas thinks it probably pre-Roman and, more precisely, from Proto-Celtic *verroccon, a word related to roca.^[4] He compares Portuguese barroco (“irregular pearl”), which could stand to it as an augmentative, the way Gaulish vernemetis (“great temple”) stands beside nemetos (“temple”).^[4] The Celtic word might be built on Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“high”), since suffixes in ⟨-kk-⟩ are well recorded in the Celtic of Spain, Gaul and Britain.^[4]

García de Diego puts it with barrueco and the berroco (“crag”) of Salamanca under Proto-Celtic *barros (“stone”).^[5] The Spanish Wiktionary mentions a Latin alternative, Latin petra (“stone”) with a suffix -occus.^[6] The Academy's dictionary derived it in 1899 from the same Latin word, and Alemany in 1917 from verrūca (“wart”).^[7][8] Autoridades had already set that idea aside: since a source in verruga was not certain, the word should be spelt with ⟨b⟩.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario of 1490 has both main senses: a berrueco aspero, a rough crag, glosses Latin rupes, and another entry uses the word for a growth in the eye.^[10][4] An undated 15th-century sermon collection speaks of oil drawn del berrueco muy duro “from the very hard rock”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The rock sense is the oldest, and it lies behind the place names recorded from the 13th century on.^[11][4] Nebrija rendered it as a verruca of a mountain, and Percyvall in 1591 as “hillocks”.^[12][13] By about 1570 it also named an irregular pearl made of many grains stuck together, a sense Autoridades illustrates from Sandoval's history of Ethiopia.^[4][9] Lists of pearls from Puerto Rico in 1516 and 1518 already set berruecos apart from the round ones.^[14]

From 1605 it was also a small wart-like growth on the eye; the Academy's 1770 dictionary illustrates it with the Inca Garcilaso, and marks the rock sense as antiquated.^[4][15] The 1843 and 1869 editions kept that label.^[16][17] The current DLE gives the rock sense first, as an isolated granite boulder, and labels the eye sense obsolete.^[2]

Timeline

• 1006 – the derivative berrocal “rocky ground” is first recorded.^[4]
• 1251 – a document on the boundaries of Martos and Jaén names the Torre del Berrueco, a place name.^[11]
• 1275 – DEMel records berrueco in documents from Madrid.^[18]
• 1440 – the phrase piedra berroqueña “granite” is recorded.^[4]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses berrueco for a crag and for a growth in the eye.^[10]
• 1516 – pearl inventories from Puerto Rico list berruecos beside picked pearls.^[14]
• c. 1570 – first record of the sense “irregular pearl”.^[4]
• 1605 – first record of the sense “growth in the eye”.^[4]
• 1770 – the Academy marks the rock sense as antiquated.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An isolated granite boulder or crag; in geology, a rock rounded by spheroidal weathering.^[2][1][3]
2. An irregular pearl (barrueco).^[2]
3. (obsolete) A wart-like growth on the iris of the eye.^[2][3]

Word family

• berrocal
• berroqueño

Related words

• barrueco
• roca
• Portuguese barroco

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. berrueco
3. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. berrueco
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. berrueco
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 941
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 136
8. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 244
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 597
10. ^ a b 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. 517
11. ^ 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. berrueco
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 303
13. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 78
14. ^ 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. berrueco
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 478
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 99
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 106
18. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. berrueco