bongó

Forms

bongó m (plural bongós)^[1]

Etymology

The DLE and the DHLE call it a word of African origin.^[2][3] Wiktionary describes it as a word of American Spanish from a Bantu language, probably Ekele.^[1] The Tesoro of Puerto Rico classes it among the Africanisms.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE's first record is of 1889, in a section headed “Correo de Cuba” of the Madrid newspaper La Iberia; there the word seems to name another drum, perhaps one of the family of the congas, rather than the paired drums of today.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DHLE explains the two kinds of definition in the dictionaries, a pair of drums and a single drum, by this early use.^[3] The word entered Suárez's Vocabulario cubano in 1921, the Academy's manual dictionary in 1927 and Santamaría's dictionary of Americanisms in 1942, but the main Academy dictionary only in 1984.^[3] In Puerto Rico the drum was first played mainly in Afro-Caribbean settings and later spread to dance orchestras.^[4] In Cuba the word has also named a small rudimentary band, and romperse el bongó means to dance a great deal.^[3]

Timeline

• 1889 – first record, in the Madrid newspaper La Iberia.^[3]
• 1921 – Suárez's Vocabulario cubano records it.^[3]
• 1927 – the Academy's manual dictionary includes it.^[3]
• 1942 – Santamaría's dictionary of Americanisms includes it.^[3]
• 1984 – the Academy's main dictionary includes it.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) A Caribbean percussion instrument, a wooden tube with a tight skin over its upper end and open below; often a pair of small joined drums, played with the hands: El percusionista tocaba el bongó con los dedos.^[2][3][5][1]

Usage notes

The DPD, as the DHLE reports, accepts only the stress on the last syllable and the plural bongós; the form bongo stressed on the first syllable belongs to a different word, the flat-bottomed river boat.^[3] That bongo, a canoe of Central America and a large river boat of Venezuela, is recorded in the Americas from 1777, and the DLE also gives it an African origin.^[6][7] The plural varies in use between bongós, bongoes and bongoses.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. bongó
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. bongó
4. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. bongó
5. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bongó
6. ^ 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. bongó
7. ^ 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. bongo