cabestro

Forms

cabestro m (plural cabestros)^[1] Beside cabestro, the metathesised cabresto is found in Old Spanish, in the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes, and in the Americas; it is the Galician and Portuguese form.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cabestro, inherited from Latin capistrum (“halter”).^[5][6][7][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese cabresto, Galician cabresto, Catalan cabestre, Occitan cabestre, French chevêtre, Italian capestro and Romanian căpăstru.^[8][4] The Portuguese form is recorded from the 13th century.^[9]

The OLD derives the Latin word probably from capiō (“to take, seize”), and Wiktionary from the same verb with the instrumental suffix -trum.^[10][1] The DHLF notes that it is not known whether the word belongs to that verb or to caput (“head”).^[11] Covarrubias had derived it from the word for “head”, because the halter hangs from the head.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Spanish texts are the fueros: the Fuero de Alcalá de Henares, in a manuscript of 1223, fines the owner of a saddle beast that a man leads per cabestro “by the halter” into a protected field.^[13][14] The Fueros de Aragón of 1247 speak of an ass stolen con cabestro o sin cabestro “with or without a halter”.^[14] Corominas dates the word only to Juan Ruiz, about 1330.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the rope or strap tied to the head or neck of a horse or mule to lead or tie it.^[15][5] By the late 15th century the word also named the tame animal that leads the herd: Nebrija has cabestro animal para guia, and Covarrubias in 1611 explains cabestro or cabestrillo as an animal used as a guide in hunting.^[16][12] The Autoridades of 1729 defined it as the old ox with a cowbell that leads bulls and cows, and quoted Cervantes's mansos cabestros.^[17] Today this is the first sense in the DLE: the tame ox that guides fighting bulls, especially in an encierro.^[7]

Figurative senses followed from the guiding ox: the Autoridades gives a husband who consents to his wife's adultery, quoting Quevedo, and the phrase traer a uno del cabestro, to lead someone wherever one wishes.^[17] Today cabestro is also a colloquial word in Spain for a clumsy, coarse person.^[7][18] In Leonese it names several things that hang, such as the umbilical cord.^[19]

Timeline

• 1223 – the Fuero de Alcalá de Henares speaks of a beast led per cabestro.^[13][14]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón have con cabestro o sin cabestro.^[14]
• c. 1330 – Juan Ruiz, Corominas's first record.^[5][6]
• 1475 – the verb encabestrar is recorded.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives both the halter and the guiding animal.^[16][20]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: jáquimas con sus cabestros.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the phrase llevar a uno del cabestro.^[12]
• 1729 – the Autoridades records the sense “leading ox”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin capistrum.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tame ox that guides fighting bulls, especially in an encierro: Los cabestros llevaron la manada hasta los corrales.^[7][1]
2. A halter: a rope tied to the head or neck of a horse or mule to lead or tie it.^[7][1]
3. A cabestrillo, a thin ornamental chain.^[7]
4. (Spain, colloquial) A clumsy or coarse person.^[7][18]
5. (Latin America, rural) A lead rope tied to the jáquima at one end and held in the hand at the other.^[22]

Word family

• cabestrear
• cabestrillo
• descabestrar
• encabestrar
• cabestrar
• cabestrero

Related words

• Latin capistrum
• Portuguese cabresto
• Catalan cabestre

Usage notes

Llevar or traer del cabestro a alguien means to have someone completely under one's control.^[7][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cabestro
3. ^ 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. cabestro
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. capistrum
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 711
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cabestro
7. ^ 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. cabestro
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 616
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 365
13. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
14. ^ 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. cabestro
15. ^ 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. 570
16. ^ a b 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. cabestro
17. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 18
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cabestro
19. ^ 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. cabestro
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 307
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 179
22. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cabestro