cóndor

Forms

cóndor m (plural cóndores)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Quechua kuntur, the Quechua name of the bird, which the Academy and Corominas write with an accent, cúntur.^[1][2][3][4] Wiktionary explains the /d/ by the voicing of /t/ in the coastal variety of Quechua.^[1] Garcilaso de la Vega gives the native form, spelt ⟨cuntur⟩, in 1602.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pedro Cieza de León's Crónica del Perú (1553) is the first record: among the night birds and birds of prey of the coast and the interior there are algunos cóndores “some condors”.^[5][6] Corominas dates the chronicle about 1554.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The chroniclers described the bird with wonder: Pedro Pizarro (1571) compared it with the bearded vulture, and José de Acosta (1590) wrote that condors were so strong they could tear open a sheep.^[5][7] Terreros (1786) repeated Garcilaso's report of a wingspan of thirty feet, adding that he left it to the reader's belief.^[8]

Like other Quechua words of Cuzco, it is stressed on the next-to-last syllable, cóndor.^[3] Some speakers in Spain and in the Americas from Colombia northwards said condór, the stress Terreros records; the Academy has accepted only cóndor since 1884.^[3][8][9] In Chile, where it supports the national coat of arms, popular speech also has cóndoro.^[9]

The name passed to gold coins of Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.^[2][9][10] The English word condor, from about 1600, comes from the Spanish.^[11]

Timeline

• 1553 – Cieza de León's Crónica del Perú.^[5][6]
• 1571 – Pedro Pizarro describes the bird near Arequipa.^[7]
• 1590 – José de Acosta's Historia natural y moral de las Indias.^[5]
• 1602 – Garcilaso de la Vega gives the Quechua cuntur.^[3]
• c. 1600 – English condor.^[11]
• 1786 – Terreros enters it as condór.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy enters cóndor with the etymology cúntur and the sense of a Colombian gold coin.^[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The condor, Vultur gryphus: a huge vulture of the Andes with black plumage, a white collar and a bare head, the largest flying bird.^[2][12][1]
2. A former gold coin of Ecuador, worth 25 sucres.^[2]
3. A Chilean and Colombian coin, first struck in gold, worth ten pesos.^[2][9]
4. (Bolivia, colloquial) Having an aquiline nose.^[13]

Related words

• Quechua kuntur
• English condor

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. cóndor
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 171
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cóndor
5. ^ 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. cóndor
6. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database)
7. ^ 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. cóndor
8. ^ a b c Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 486
9. ^ a b c d Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. 224
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
13. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cóndor