césped

Forms

césped m (plural céspedes)^[1] The old form céspede is still heard as a vulgarism.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish céspede, inherited from Latin caespes (“sod, turf”), through its accusative form.^[2][3][4][1] The Spanish vowel fits better the variant spelling cēspes, found already in ancient sources.^[2][1] The final vowel of the Old Spanish form was later lost.^[4][2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese céspede, Galician céspede, Italian cespo and the learned cespite.^[2][5] Catalan gespa has an initial consonant altered by crossing with the pre-Roman word behind Catalan gerb.^[6][2]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown; its first meaning may have been “a cut-off piece”, and an Oscan form that has been compared is too unclear to be used.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1076, with the form céspede.^[2][3] DEMel has por ramo y por césped “by branch and by sod” in a document of 1115 from San Vicente de Oviedo.^[8] In Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1275) the shores of a lake are surrounded de cespedes & de yeruas uerdes, and the Dead Sea throws up cespedes negros de bitumen, black lumps of bitumen.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Until the 17th century the word meant what Latin caespes meant, a clod of earth held together by grass roots, cut and used to build low walls and dams.^[2][11] Nebrija glosses it as “a clod with roots”.^[2] The modern sense, the short thick grass covering the ground, appears clearly in Calderón.^[2] The Academy's dictionaries gave the bark of a pruning cut and the clod as its senses until the 1899 edition put the grass first.^[12][13] Turf is now usually called tepe.^[4]

The word also names the bark that forms over a pruning cut on a vine shoot.^[4][14] In sport it is the playing field.^[4][15]

Timeline

• 1076 – the first record, céspede, in a charter.^[2][3]
• 1115 – por ramo y por césped in a document of San Vicente de Oviedo.^[8]
• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria.^[9]
• 1356 – the Fuero viejo de Castilla speaks of digging céspedes in another's land.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: cesped terron con raizes, Latin cespes.^[2][16]
• 1541 – the first record from the Americas, in Michoacán: un cu de céspedes.^[17]
• 17th century – Calderón uses it for grass covering the ground.^[2]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the grass as the first sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. lawn, grass: short, thick grass that covers the ground: Hay que regar el césped del jardín.^[4][1]
2. turf, sod: a piece of earth bound by grass roots (tepe).^[4][1]
3. The bark that forms over the cut where vine shoots have been pruned.^[4]
4. (sports) The pitch, the grass playing field.^[4][15]

Word family

• cortacésped
• cespedera
• encespedar

Related words

• cespitar
• tepe
• Latin caespes
• Catalan gespa

Usage notes

Césped inglés is ryegrass (ballico).^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 57
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. césped
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. césped
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. caespes
6. ^ 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. 4, 488
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. césped
9. ^ 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. césped
10. ^ 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. césped
11. ^ 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. 685
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 171
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 222
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 242
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. césped
16. ^ 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. césped
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. césped