borra

Forms

borra f (plural borras)^[1] The Latin text of the Fuero de Madrid (1158–1202) has the forms bora and Latin boram.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish borra, inherited from Late Latin burra (“coarse wool”).^[3][4][1] In Latin burra was a shaggy garment, and the plural meant “trifles, nonsense” in Ausonius.^[5] In Medieval Latin borra meant “coarse wool, stuffing”.^[6]

The same word is Portuguese borra, Catalan borra, Italian borra and French bourre, first spelt borre in the 1170s.^[7][8][9] In Spanish and Portuguese it also came to mean “dregs, sediment”.^[7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain, and the DHLF suggests that it is the feminine of the adjective burrus (“red”), used as a noun, from Ancient Greek πυρρός (purrhós, “reddish”), perhaps through Etruscan.^[8] DICCA-XV likewise takes it for a short form of a phrase meaning “reddish wool”.^[10] Coromines thinks the word did not belong to the Latin of Rome in the beginning.^[9]

The sense “yearling ewe” is more probably a back-formation from Spanish borrego, a lamb named for its soft, short wool, as the BDELC says of this sense and of borro.^[3][11] The DLE treats it as one word with the wool, under the headword for the masculine.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) rules that the borra left from the shearing of a cloth belongs to the owner of the cloth.^[12] In the Fuero de Cáceres, of the 13th century, whoever spins borra, puts it in sackcloth or cards it with iron cards pays a fine of one maravedí.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

From the waste of wool and cloth the word spread to the short fur of an animal that cannot yet be shorn, to the goat hair used to stuff balls and cushions, to the down of the cotton boll, and to the dust and fluff that gather under furniture.^[14][15][4] In 1611 Covarrubias already linked it with borrego, the lamb with short wool.^[14] From the late 15th century it also meant the dregs of wine, oil or ink: Nebrija has borras de azeite and borras de vino.^[10][15]

The sense “yearling ewe” appears in the Fuero de Molina de Aragón (c. 1272–1283), and borra also named a tax on sheep, one head in a certain number.^[13][16] Figuratively borra is empty words or padding, as in meter borra.^[17][4]

In the Canaries and much of the Caribbean, Ecuador and Bolivia borra is the grounds of coffee, and in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela it is also a pencil eraser.^[18][19][20]

Timeline

• 1158–1202 – the Latin text of the Fuero de Madrid has the forms bora and boram.^[2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes speaks of the borra of cloth.^[12]
• c. 1272–1283 – the Fuero de Molina de Aragón uses borra for a yearling ewe.^[13]
• 1485 – the BDELC's date for borra “yearling ewe”.^[3][11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has borras for the dregs of liquids.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the short fur of a beast that cannot yet be shorn.^[14]
• 1770 – the Academy's dictionary records the tax on sheep called borra.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Low Latin burra.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lamb between one and two years old, especially a yearling ewe.^[4][1]
2. The coarsest or shortest part of the wool.^[4][1]
3. Goat hair used to stuff balls, cushions and the like.^[4]
4. The nap that the cloth-shearer cuts from cloth with his shears.^[4]
5. The down that comes out of the cotton boll.^[4]
6. Fluff and dust that gather in pockets, under furniture and on carpets: Debajo del sofá había mucha borra.^[4][22]
7. The thick sediment of ink, oil and other liquids.^[4]
8. Empty words, padding in speech or writing.^[4]
9. (historical) A tax on livestock of one head in a certain number.^[4]
10. (Caribbean, Canaries, Andes) Coffee grounds.^[18][19][1]

Word family

• emborrizar
• borrego
• emborrar
• desborrar

Related words

• borrar
• borroso
• borro
• Portuguese borra
• French bourre

Usage notes

The DLE has a minor homograph borra, another name for bórax.^[23] Vox derives it from Old Spanish borrax, a 15th-century borrowing from an Arabic word for “nitre”.^[24] The colloquial phrase ¿acaso es borra? says that something is not as worthless as it seems.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. borra
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. borra
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. borro
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 128
10. ^ a b c 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. borra
11. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. borrego
12. ^ 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. borra
13. ^ 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. 540
14. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 332
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 653
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 514
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 138
18. ^ 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. borra
19. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. borra
20. ^ 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. borra
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 162
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. borra
23. ^ 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. borra
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. borra