cabrio

cabrio¹ rafter

Pronunciation

• /ˈkabɾjo/, [ˈka.β̞ɾjo]^[1]

Forms

cabrio m (plural cabrios)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the rafter is inherited from Old Spanish cabrio, inherited from Vulgar Latin *capreus.^[2][3][4][5] The BDELC takes this as a derivative of Latin caprea (“roe deer, wild goat”), and suggests the beam was named after the custom of carving an animal's head on the ends of beams;^[6][7] Moliner and Segura Munguía give the same explanation.^[2][6][7] Wiktionary goes back to caper (“he-goat”).^[1] The REW treats the Vulgar Latin noun as a back-formation from capreolus.^[5]

The same word is Portuguese caibro, Catalan cabiró, Old Occitan cabrion and French chevron, the last three formed with a suffix.^[5][4][1] García de Diego adds Salamancan crabio and Ribagorzan quefro.^[4] The Latin word for “he-goat” goes back to Proto-Italic *kapro- (“he-goat”), with cognates in Ancient Greek κάπρος (kápros, “wild boar”) and Old Norse hafr (“he-goat”); de Vaan thinks it more likely a loanword than a Proto-Indo-European word, since no single word for “goat” can be reconstructed.^[8]

Covarrubias in 1611 derived it from cabo, the tip of the pine from which the thin timber was cut, and the Academy in 1899 from the same Latin diminutive.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates it to 1220–1250, the time of Berceo, whose Milagros de Nuestra Señora lists among the burning parts of a church las vigas, las gateras, los cabrios, los cumbrales “the beams … the rafters, the ridge-pieces”.^[2][11][12] The earliest text that survives in a contemporary copy is the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes (c. 1250), on a roof that must have twelve cabrios a palm apart.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses it for building timber of varying length and width.^[13][11] Nebrija gave it, with the variant cabrial, the Latin equivalents tignus and tigillus.^[14] Autoridades defined it as a beam that with others forms the floor and roof of a house.^[15] The Academy's 1884 edition gave the architectural sense, a timber laid parallel to the principal rafters of a roof frame to carry the boarding, with a Valencian measure of thirty palms.^[16] The DLE adds the heraldic chevron, a piece shaped like half a saltire with its point reaching the middle of the chief.^[17]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo's Milagros.^[2][11]
• c. 1250 – the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes specifies twelve cabrios for a roof.^[12]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España lists vigas, cabrios among the timbers taken for the defence of a town.^[12][13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has cabrio o cabrial.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from cabo.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the architectural definition.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A building timber, three to six metres long and ten to fifteen centimetres wide, its size varying from region to region.^[17][6]
2. (architecture) In traditional building, a rafter laid parallel to the principal rafters of a roof frame to carry the boarding.^[17][1]
3. (heraldry) A chevron: an ordinary shaped like half a saltire (sotuer), with its point reaching the middle of the chief.^[17][1]

Word family

• encabriar

cabrio² convertible car

Pronunciation

• /ˈkabɾjo/, [ˈka.β̞ɾjo]^[1]

Forms

cabrio m^[17]

Etymology

The word for the convertible car is borrowed from French cabrio, a shortening of cabriolet.^[17] The full form cabriolé was taken from the French word in the second half of the 18th century; the French word, of 1759, is a derivative of cabriole (“caper”), named for the leaps these light carriages make.^[18] Wiktionary traces the French word to Italian cabriola (“caper of a horse”) with the suffix -et, from Latin capreolus.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cabriolet (cabriolé): a convertible car, a descapotable.^[17][19]