caballerango

Forms

caballerango m (plural caballerangos, feminine caballeranga, feminine plural caballerangas)^[1]

Etymology

Wikcionario derives it from Spanish caballo (“horse”), without explaining the ending.^[2] It belongs with caballerizo “groom of the stables”, the word Malaret and Santamaría use to define it.^[3][4] The DLE and the DAMER give no etymology.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

García Icazbalceta's dictionary of Mexicanisms (1899) defines it as the servant who looks after and saddles the horses on haciendas and in private houses, quoting Facundo: lo que no sabe por la ama de la casa lo sepa por el cochero, por el lacayo ó por el caballerango “what he does not learn from the housekeeper he learns from the coachman, the footman or the groom”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In 1942 Santamaría called it very common in Mexico, in the sense of stableman or groom who rides alongside.^[4] The Academy's 2001 edition defined it as a mozo de espuela, a groom who walks at the stirrup, and Moliner as the servant who went with his master when he rode.^[8][9] The DLE now has a man or woman who looks after the horses of a stable, in Mexico, and the DAMER adds Ecuador, and Guatemala and El Salvador, where it is little used and can be derogatory.^[5][6]

In New Mexico it means a bronco buster or cowboy.^[10] Cobos derives the English word wrangler from it, through a form caverango.^[10] Etymonline instead takes wrangler “herder on a ranch” (1888) as a sense of the English agent noun of wrangle.^[11]

Timeline

• 1899 – García Icazbalceta records it as a Mexicanism.^[7]
• 1906 – the first record in Boyd-Bowman's dictionary, from Mexico.^[12]
• 1935 – the caballerango of a country estate, in Mexico.^[12]
• 1942 – Santamaría calls it very common in Mexico.^[4]
• 1946 – Malaret records it as the Mexican word for caballerizo.^[3]
• 2010 – the DAMER records it in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Mexico, Ecuador, Central America) A groom or stableman, who looks after the horses of a stable: El caballerango ensilló la yegua antes del amanecer.^[5][6][1]
2. (Mexico, dated) A groom who rides or walks beside his master, a mozo de espuela.^[8][9]
3. (New Mexico) A bronco buster, a cowboy.^[10]

Related words

• caballo
• caballerizo
• caballeriza

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 174
4. ^ a b c Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 244
5. ^ a b c 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. caballerango
6. ^ 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. caballerango
7. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. caballerango
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. caballerango
9. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caballerango
10. ^ a b c Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 42
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ 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. caballerango