botella

Forms

botella f (plural botellas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bouteille (“bottle”), a late word in Spanish that took the place of the classical frasco.^[2][3][4][1] The French word, earlier Old French boteille, comes from Late Latin butticula, a diminutive of buttis (“wineskin, cask”).^[2][3][5] The diminutive is recorded in the Carolingian period, also spelt ⟨butella⟩ and ⟨botella⟩, with the sense “keg, small barrel”.^[5][6] The origin of buttis is uncertain; a borrowing from Ancient Greek βοῦττις (boûttis) is possible, but the Greek word may itself be a loan.^[5][1]

The inherited Spanish outcome of the Latin diminutive is botija, a doublet of the borrowed word.^[7][1][8] Between the 15th and 17th centuries Spanish also had a form botilla, which Corominas thinks was taken from Italian bottiglia or perhaps from Occitan.^[2] The same French word gave bottle.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1721.^[2][3] In 1726 the Diccionario de Autoridades described it as a flask of very thick black glass with a narrow neck, holding at most two or three cuartillos of wine, then very commonly used to bring wine and other drinks from abroad, and called it a word newly taken from French.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word spread at the expense of frasco, which had been the usual name.^[2] The 1884 edition of the Academy's dictionary records the contents of a bottle and the Leyden jar, botella de Leiden.^[10] The current dictionary adds the metal cylinder for gas under pressure and an old measure of liquids of one and a half cuartillos, 756.3 ml.^[4]

In Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico a botella is a sinecure, a well-paid post with little or no work, often obtained through influence.^[11][12] Ortiz ties this Cuban sense to the government of General Menocal, but notes that de botella had long been said of people who got into a show without paying.^[13] In Cuba pedir botella is to ask for a free ride.^[4] The word passed into the languages of the Philippines, as Tagalog botelya.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the variant botilla.^[2]
• 1513 – botillas para vino are recorded in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1721 – the first record that Corominas gives for botella.^[2][3]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a new word from French.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the Leyden jar and the verb embotellar.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bottle: a container of glass, plastic or another material, with a narrow neck, for holding liquids: Llenó la botella en la fuente.^[4][1]
2. The liquid a bottle holds: Entre los dos se tomaron una botella de sidra.^[4]
3. A long metal cylinder for gas under pressure.^[4][1]
4. (historical) A measure of liquids equal to one and a half cuartillos, 756.3 ml.^[4]
5. (Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) A sinecure: a well-paid job with little or no work.^[4][11]
6. (Cuba, colloquial) A free ride in someone else's car going the same way;^[4] pedir botella “to hitch a ride”.^[4]

Word family

• embotellar
• abrebotellas
• botellazo
• botellero
• botellín
• botellón

Related words

• bota
• botija
• boto
• frasco
• French bouteille

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 643
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. botella
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. botella
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bouteille
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. butticula
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. butticula
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. botella
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 661
10. ^ 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. 164
11. ^ 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. botella
12. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. botella
13. ^ Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 142
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. botella