boyero

Forms

boyero m (plural boyeros, feminine boyera, feminine plural boyeras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish buey + -ero.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary takes it instead as inherited from Latin bovārius, and gives the Spanish formation only as a surface analysis.^[1]

The Latin adjective, also spelt boārius, meant “of cattle”, as in the name of the Forum Boarium, the cattle market of Rome, and in Medieval Latin it named a cowherd.^[6][7] It gave Catalan bover, French bouvier, Italian boaro and Romanian boar.^[8][1] The base noun is from Latin bōs (“ox”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas first records it about 1330 in Juan Manuel, who says that farmers working with their own hands, such as boyeros and ploughmen, may well save their souls.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “one who tends or drives oxen” has not changed since Nebrija, who glosses it with Latin bubulcus.^[9][2] In the Quijote the boyero drives the ox-cart that carries the knight home.^[10] Gaspar y Roig added a figurative sense, “a rough, rustic man”, and the name of the constellation Boötes.^[11]

In the Americas the word was given to animals that live among cattle: in the Río de la Plata a black bird that rides on grazing cattle and weaves a hanging nest, and in Cuba and Puerto Rico a ground dove.^[12][13][14] Other local senses are an ox-goad in Ecuador, the morning star in Colombia, a ranch hand who runs errands in Argentina and an overseer of the ox-carts in the Dominican cane fields.^[15][14][16]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – Juan Manuel; the first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: boiero que guarda bueies, Latin bubulcus.^[9]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, at Puebla.^[17]
• 1605 – the Quijote has a boyero who looks for a place to rest the oxen.^[10]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as the man who tends or leads oxen yoked to a cart.^[18]
• 1853 – Gaspar y Roig records the constellation name.^[11]
• 1890 – Granada describes the Río de la Plata bird.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cowherd or drover: a person who looks after or drives oxen.^[2][1]
2. (Argentina, Uruguay) Any of several birds of the icterid family, black with patches of other colours, which weave hanging nests.^[2][14]
3. (Cuba, Puerto Rico) A wild ground dove, Geotrygon montana.^[14]
4. (Argentina, rural) A ranch hand who does small jobs and errands.^[14]
5. (Dominican Republic) A worker on horseback who supervises the ox-cart drivers in the cane fields.^[16]

Related words

• boyerizo
• boyada
• Catalan bover
• French bouvier

Usage notes

Boyerizo, recorded about 1420, is a synonym.^[4][19] The feminine boyera also names a cattle shed for oxen.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. boyero
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 688
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. buey
5. ^ 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. 544
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. bover
9. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 304
10. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 199
11. ^ a b Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 398
12. ^ a b Granada, Daniel (1890), Vocabulario rioplatense razonado, 2nd ed., Montevideo: Imprenta Rural, p. 110
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 270
14. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. boyero
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 163
16. ^ a b 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. boyero
17. ^ 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. boyero
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 665
19. ^ 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. boyerizo