bigote

Forms

bigote m (plural bigotes)^[1] Nebrija has the form bigot;^[1] vigote is common in 16th-century texts and in Cervantes, and bigode, the Portuguese form, was used in Castilian by Díaz Tanco in 1547.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][4] Corominas thinks it must come in the end from a Germanic oath “by God”, used as a nickname for men who wore a moustache and then for the moustache itself.^[2][4] It is from German bei Gott (“by God”) according to the DLE, which hedges this with a “perhaps”.^[5] Wiktionary connects it with the gesture of men who, swearing “by God”, touched the upper lip with the forefinger as if kissing a cross.^[1]

Baist held that the moustache spread in Spain only from about 1530, with the German soldiers of Charles V, who were known for swearing.^[2] Nebrija's bigot of about 1495 shows that the word, and the fashion, were in Spain earlier, and Lapesa pointed to Swiss soldiers who served in the war of Granada from 1483.^[2] Corominas also considers a French route: in the 12th century Old French bigot was a nickname for the Normans, because of their dealings with the English, who then pronounced the oath bi God, and if the moustache came from France the Spanish word may first have meant “Frenchman”.^[2][4] He notes as a difficulty that the Spanish word never shows a diphthong, although High German had changed ⟨bi⟩ to ⟨bei⟩ long before the 15th century.^[2] Gómez de Silva derives the word from the French nickname, which he takes to be the source of the English word bigot too.^[6]

Corominas rejects a link with French bique (“goat”) proposed by Sainéan, and Spitzer's derivation from viga (“beam”), accepted in the REW, for the twisted points of the moustache.^[2] He takes Portuguese bigode as further evidence of a foreign word, which a Spanish derivative of the word for “beam” would not explain.^[2] Catalan bigoti comes from Spanish, and French bigoudi probably from the Portuguese word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary of about 1495 has bigot de barva “moustache of the beard”, rendered with Latin mustax.^[2][3] The BDELC dates the form bigot to 1475.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word, mostly in the plural, was used for the long hair of the upper lip, which travellers noted on the Turks; a writer of about 1550 counted long bigotes among the things that spoil a face.^[3] Covarrubias called it a French word for small rolls of bread and sugar given to children, from whose shape the moustache was named;^[7][8] Corominas takes the pastry sense to be secondary.^[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades derived it from Italian gotte “cheek” and Latin bis, and recorded bigote a la fernandina, long twisted moustaches reaching almost to the ears, and hombre de bigote al ojo, a serious and mature man, from the moustaches twisted up towards the eyes.^[9] The phrase el bigote al ojo, aunque no haya un cuarto was said of those who show off gravity without the means.^[7][8] By the 19th century it also named a printer's ornament, a line thick in the middle and thin at the ends, and the furnace terms of mining.^[10][11] In the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico the plural means leftovers of food that can still be eaten.^[12][13]

Timeline

• c. 1495 – Nebrija records bigot de barva.^[2][3]
• c. 1545 – Diego Hurtado de Mendoza has bigotes in a joke about a Portuguese man.^[3]
• 1547 – Díaz Tanco uses the Portuguese form bigode.^[2]
• 1555 – the Viaje de Turquía, which the CDH dates 1557–1558, gives what Corominas takes for the first record of the form bigote.^[2][3]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: bigotes de la barba.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it a French word.^[2]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives it from Italian and Latin and records bigote a la fernandina and bigote al ojo.^[9]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the printing sense.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Low Latin bigo “pickaxe”; in 1899 it derives it from viga.^[11][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. moustache: the hair that grows on the upper lip; also in the plural with the same sense: Se dejó crecer los bigotes durante el invierno.^[5][1]
2. The long whiskers on either side of the mouth of some animals, usually in the plural.^[5][1]
3. (colloquial) A trace of drink or food left on the upper lip.^[5][16]
4. (printing) A horizontal line, thick in the middle and thin at the ends.^[5][17]
5. (engineering) The semicircular opening at the front of a blast furnace through which the molten slag runs out.^[5]
6. (engineering, in the plural) Seepages of metal into the cracks inside a furnace; the flames that come out of the furnace opening.^[5]
7. (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico; in the plural) Leftovers of food that can still be used.^[12]
8. (Puerto Rico) A vehicle or device in very bad condition.^[12][18]

Word family

• bigotera
• bigotudo
• bigotón

Related words

• Portuguese bigode
• English bigot

Usage notes

The colloquial phrase de bigote or de bigotes means “difficult, severe” or “huge, exceptional”.^[5][17] In Mexico bigotes de aguacero are moustaches that droop at the sides of the lips.^[5] The DHECan's vigote or bigote, a beam of timber used in Canarian roofs from 1549, is a separate word, an augmentative of viga.^[19]

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 k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 583
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bigote
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bigote
5. ^ 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. bigote
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. bigote
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 485
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 130
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 608
10. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 260
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 151
12. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bigote
13. ^ 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. bigote
14. ^ 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. bigote
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 140
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. bigote
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bigote
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. bigote
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. bigote