broca

Forms

broca f (plural brocas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan broca, a technical name for various pointed objects.^[2][3][1] Corominas takes it to be a loan because the word has an open /o/ in Old Occitan broca, French broche and Italian brocca, where a native Castilian word would have the diphthong ⟨ue⟩;^[4][5] Prat Sabater lists it among the Catalanisms recognised by their stressed /o/, while noting that Occitan, Italian and French also qualify as sources on this argument alone.^[2][4][5] The DLE and Wikcionario derive it directly from Latin broccus (“buck-toothed”).^[6][7]

The Romance words continue a Vulgar Latin noun *brocca, the feminine of the Latin adjective used as a noun.^[8][9] The Latin adjective, said of protruding teeth, is an expressive popular word with doubled ⟨cc⟩.^[8][10] Corominas thinks it was taken from Celtic with the basic sense “projecting, pointed”.^[2][11] Wiktionary suggests a Gaulish source, *brokkos (“badger”), and the DHLF mentions the comparison with the Old Irish word for “badger”, without a clear etymology.^[1][8] The sense “bobbin” comes from the metal rods on which bobbins are set.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is from the Aragonese fueros of 1350, in the sense “point”: a pair of gilt spurs con broqua “with a spike” is valued at more than five sueldos.^[2][12] In 1423 Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria lists cuchillos, brocas, pereros e punganes among the carver's tools, where broca is a fork.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

The DCECH dates the senses “button” and “bobbin” to 1611, “shoemaker's nail” to 1642 and “drill bit” to 1888.^[2] Percyvall's dictionary of 1591 already translates it as a shoemaker's tack.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 took it for the same word as brocha and explained it as the round button that goes into an eyelet, and as the small wheel on which embroiderers keep their silk.^[15] Autoridades in 1726 gives the embroiderer's bobbin, the small iron tool with which locksmiths bore the hollow of keys, and the shoemaker's square-headed nail.^[16] The Academy marked “button” and “fork” as obsolete from 1817, and in 1899 defined the drill as a conical bit used with the brace for boring metal.^[17][18] Today the main sense is the bit of a drilling machine.^[19][1]

In Central America and elsewhere in the Americas broca is also the coffee berry borer, a tiny beetle whose larvae bore into the coffee bean, and the damage it causes.^[20][21][22]

Timeline

• 1350 – first record, “spike” of a spur, in the Aragonese fueros.^[2][12]
• 1423 – “table fork”, in Villena's Arte cisoria.^[2][13]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it as a shoemaker's tack.^[14]
• 1611 – “button” and “bobbin”, in Covarrubias.^[2][15]
• 1642 – Corominas's date for “shoemaker's nail”.^[2]
• 1726 – Autoridades has the bobbin, the locksmith's boring tool and the shoemaker's nail.^[16]
• 1830 – drill bits in an inventory from Durango, Mexico.^[23]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin broccus “buck tooth”.^[24]
• 1888 – Corominas's date for “drill bit”.^[2]
• 1942 – Santamaría records it as the insect pest of the coffee plant.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bobbin inside a shuttle (lanzadera) that carries the weft thread in some kinds of weaving.^[6][25]
2. drill bit: a conical-ended bit used in drilling machines: Para el hormigón hace falta una broca especial.^[6][19][1]
3. A round, square-headed nail with which shoemakers hold the sole on the last while making or mending shoes.^[6][25]
4. (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras) A pest of the coffee bean, caused by the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei); in much of Latin America, the beetle itself.^[6][20]
5. (obsolete) A button (botón).^[6][25]
6. (obsolete) A table fork (tenedor).^[6][25]

Word family

• embrocar
• broqueta

Related words

• broche
• brocha
• Catalan broca
• Latin broccus

Usage notes

Old Spanish also had a broca for the boss of a shield, first in the Valladolid ordinances of 1258 (las brocas delos escudos).^[12] Alonso derives that word from Latin buccula, a separate source;^[13][26][27] Cunha and Machado trace the Portuguese broca of the shield to French boucle.^[13][26][27]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 672
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. broca
4. ^ a b Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 117
5. ^ a b Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 119
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. broca
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. broche
9. ^ 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. broca
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. broccus
11. ^ 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, 246
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. broca
13. ^ a b c d 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. 551
14. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 82
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 342
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 685
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 144
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 156
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. broca
20. ^ 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. broca
21. ^ 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. broca
22. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 234
23. ^ 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. broca
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 169
25. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. broca
26. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 583
27. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 461