buey

Forms

buey m (plural bueyes)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote bue, boy, buy and boe, with the plurals bues, bueis, bueys and bueyes;^[2] Nebrija still uses the plural bueis.^[3][2][4] Leonese and Salamanca have bué, and Asturian güe.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *boem, from Latin bōs (“ox, cow”) (accusative bovem).^[4][7][8][1] The accusative was reduced to *boe, which gave Old Spanish buee and then the modern form.^[7][9] The final /e/ closed to /i/ in hiatus after the stressed vowel, so that the word ends in a triphthong.^[10]

The same Latin word is Portuguese boi, Galician boi, Asturian güe, Catalan bou, Occitan buòu, French bœuf, Italian bue and Romanian bou.^[11][12][1] The Judaeo-Spanish form is Ladino buey.^[1]

The Latin noun continues Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws, the word of Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Sanskrit गो (go) and English cow.^[1][13] Its initial /b/ is not the regular Latin outcome of the inherited labiovelar, which would have given a form with /w/, so the word is generally held to have been taken from a Sabellic language such as Umbrian bum (accusative).^[13][14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1184 in Oelschläger's list.^[4][7] The earliest CDH context is the commandment in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): ni cobdicies … so buey, ny so asno, “do not covet his ox, nor his ass”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word already meant the castrated male used for ploughing, as it does today.^[16][2] Covarrubias (1611) pointed out that Latin bos named both sexes, while Spanish buey is only the castrated bull and vaca the female.^[17]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defined it as a castrated bull useful for working the land, and recorded the hunter's buey de caza, a painted dummy ox behind which the hunter hides.^[18][18] In the slang of thieves the plural meant playing cards, which the Academy recorded in 1884.^[19][8] In Mexico and Central America buey is used for a stupid person and, in Mexico, as a familiar word for a friend, often written güey.^[20][1][21]

Timeline

• 1184 – first record of buey, in a charter.^[4][7]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has buey in the commandment against coveting (in a 13th-century copy).^[15]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario mentions a stone found in the gall of a bull or ox.^[22]
• c. 1330 – first record of boyero “ox driver”, in Juan Manuel.^[4]
• 1540 – first record from the Americas, in Puebla.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias notes that buey is only the castrated male.^[17]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it and records buey de caza.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the slang plural “playing cards”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ox, bullock: a castrated male of cattle: Una yunta de bueyes araba el campo.^[8][1]
2. Short for buey de mar, the edible crab Cancer pagurus.^[8][24]
3. (bullfighting, derogatory) A tame, cowardly fighting bull.^[8]
4. (Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua) A stupid person (tonto).^[8][20]
5. (Mexico, colloquial) dude, mate: a familiar form of address, also spelt güey.^[20][1][21]
6. (Puerto Rico) A large sum of money.^[25][1]
7. (underworld slang, plural) A deck of playing cards.^[8]

Word family

• boyada
• boyal
• boyero
• boyuno
• boyerizo
• boíl
• detienebuey

Related words

• bueyero
• bueyuno
• güey
• wey
• bovino
• bóvido
• Latin bōs
• Portuguese boi
• Catalan bou

Usage notes

The DLE has a separate buey of unknown origin, a rough measure of a large flow of water, a heavy gush of water from a channel, and a wave breaking through a ship's port.^[8] The DRAE of 2001 had derived it from Greek bólos “throw”, while Autoridades took buey de agua from the size of an ox.^[26][18] Phrases include poner el carro delante de los bueyes and the Río de la Plata hablar de bueyes perdidos “to talk of trifles”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 84
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. buey
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 688
5. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. buey
6. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. güe
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. buey
8. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. buey
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. buey
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. buey
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1225
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. bos
13. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. buey
16. ^ 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. 556
17. ^ 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. 347
18. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 706
19. ^ 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. 171
20. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. buey
21. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. buey
22. ^ 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. buey
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. boey
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. buey
25. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. buey
26. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. buey