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buñuelo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word buñuelo

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1275 Alfonso X, General estoria, first part More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Old Spanish *boño,-uelo

Pronunciation

  • /buˈɲwelo/, [buˈɲwe.lo][1]

Forms

buñuelo m (plural buñuelos)[1] Alfonso X wrote boñuelos; a Latin–Spanish glossary of about 1400 has munnuelo beside buñuelo.[2][3] Judeo-Spanish has burmuelo, birmuelo and brimuelo, and Salamanca briñuelo.[4] Biñuelo is used in Puerto Rico.[5]

Etymology

It is formed from Old Spanish *boño + -uelo, a diminutive of an unrecorded Old Spanish noun.[6][1] Corominas puts it with Catalan bunyol and French beignet, all derived from relatives of Catalan bony (“bump, swelling”), a word of unknown and apparently pre-Roman origin.[7] The family includes Old French bugne (“bump”), still used in French dialects, and Gascon bougno, which also lie behind boñiga “dung”.[8] Bénaben explains the fritter as named for its shape, a swelling of fried dough.[9] Wiktionary compares Ladino bimuelo.[1]

The further origin is disputed: the DLE derives the base noun from Gothic *buggjō (“lump”).[6] Wiktionary also mentions a possible identity with moño “bun of hair”.[1] García de Diego took it from a Celtic *buna (“trunk, branch”).[4] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente see a hybrid with a Romance diminutive suffix, built on an Andalusian Arabic word for a small unbaked loaf given as a baking fee, from Latin podium (“small eminence”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the first part of Alfonso X's General estoria (c. 1275), on the oil-fried loaves that the Latin Bible calls lagana: por estos panes lugana suelen dezir enel lenguage de castiella crespillos, e algunos dizen que les podemos otrossí dezir boñuelos “for these loaves people say crespillos in the language of Castile, and some say we can also call them boñuelos”.[2][11][1]

Semantic evolution

In 14th-century texts buñuelos with butter are the food of the Muslim paradise: the Poema de Alfonso Onceno and the Gran crónica de Alfonso XI mock the Moors who hoped to eat them in heaven.[2][3] Autoridades in 1726 described a ball of dough, usually the size of a walnut, fried in boiling oil and eaten with or without honey, and named the kinds de jeringa and de viento; it also had the phrase ¿es buñuelo?, said to someone who wants a thing done without allowing the time it needs.[12][13]

The figurative sense “botched job, something badly made” is in Alemany in 1917, and is the DLE's second sense.[14][6] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1546 in Santo Domingo.[15] It names a thin, crisp fried wafer with honey in Mexico, and a small fried ball of cassava dough with egg and cheese, sweetened with syrup, in Nicaragua, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.[16][6] In Colombia it is also a fat person, or an inexperienced one.[16]

Timeline

  • c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria gives boñuelos as another name for oil-fried loaves.[2][11]
  • 1292–1293 – the Castigos e documentos says the Moors will eat butter and buñuelos.[3]
  • before 1348 – the Poema de Alfonso Onceno has buñuelos con manteca.[2]
  • 14th century – Corominas's date for the word.[7]
  • 1546 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.[15]
  • 1604 – first record of buñolero “fritter maker”.[7]
  • 1617 – first record of buñolería “fritter shop”.[7]
  • 1726 – Autoridades has the kinds de jeringa and de viento and the phrase ¿es buñuelo?.[12]
  • 1917 – Alemany records the figurative sense “something badly made”.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fritter: a ball of well-beaten flour dough fried in oil, which puffs up as it fries and comes out in various shapes and sizes.[6][1]
  2. (colloquial) Something done badly and in a hurry; a botch.[6][17]
  3. (Mexico) A large, thin, crisp fried wafer eaten with honey or sugar.[16]
  4. (Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua) A small ball of cassava (yuca) dough with egg and cheese, fried and sweetened with honey or syrup.[6][16]
  5. buñuelo de viento: a fritter filled with cream, angel's hair or another sweet.[6][17]

Word family

  • buñolero
  • buñolería
  • boñiga
  • Catalan bunyol
  • Catalan bony
  • French beignet
  • Ladino bimuelo

Usage notes

Mandar a alguien a freír buñuelos “send someone to fry fritters” means to send someone packing, like a freír espárragos.[6][17] Moliner notes that the cream-filled buñuelos de viento are typical of All Saints' Day.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. buñuelo
  3. ^ 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. 559
  4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1182
  5. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. buñuelo
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. buñuelo
  7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. buñuelo
  8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 621
  9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. buñuelo
  10. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. buñuelo
  11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. buñuelo
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. buñuelo
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 547
  14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 283
  15. ^ a b 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. biñuelo
  16. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. buñuelo
  17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. buñuelo
Cite this entry

“Buñuelo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/bu%C3%B1uelo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·