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caldera

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word caldera

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
922 More words from the 10th century
Inherited from
Latin caldaria
Ultimate origin
Latin caleō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin caldāria
French chaudière
English chowder
Spanish caldera
From the same root
English cauldron ← caldāria

Pronunciation

  • /kalˈdeɾa/, [kal̪ˈd̪e.ɾa][1]

Forms

caldera f (plural calderas)[1] Old Spanish also had callera, with the /ld/ assimilated, in a charter of Fanlo of 1134 (calleras) and later texts.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin caldāria (“cooking pot, cauldron”), recorded in Spanish from 922.[3][4][5] Latin caldāria was a noun made from the feminine of the adjective caldārius (“of or for warming”), which was formed on caldus, the shortened form of calidus (“warm, hot”), with the suffix -ārius.[1][3][6] In Latin the word first meant a hot bath, and later a pot for boiling.[6][7] The neuter caldārium gave the doublet caldero.[3][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese caldeira, Galician caldeira, Catalan caldera, Occitan caudera, French chaudière, Italian caldaia and Romanian căldare.[8][9] Basque galdaria was borrowed from it.[9]

The adjective goes with the verb caleō (“to be warm”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kalē- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱlh₁-eh₁- (“to be hot”).[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 922, and the DEMel has it in a cartulary of San Millán de la Cogolla in 1057.[3][4][2] The CDH's earliest hit is an inventory of the 13th century, which lists .i. caldera among a household's goods, next to hoes, a cart and tubs.[11] In the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy) sartenes e calderas “pans and cauldrons” are prepared for a banquet.[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for a large round metal vessel for heating water or cooking, and Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the cauldrons of the baths.[13][14] Covarrubias in 1611 explains the old dignity of pendón y caldera: the kings granted the great nobles who served them in war a banner, to lead their men, and a cauldron, to cook their food.[15] He also records caldera de Pero Botello for hell, guessing that it was named after a dyer with a huge vat.[15] Autoridades in 1729 gives it as caldera de Pero Botero.[15][16]

The industrial senses came with the 19th century: Domínguez in 1846 describes the steam boiler, and the Academy added the boiler of a steam engine in 1869.[17][18] Today the word also names the boiler of a heating system and, in geology, a large volcanic crater.[5] In the Canaries it is the usual word for the round volcanic hollows of the mountains.[19] In Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay a caldera is a kettle for heating water, used for mate.[5][20][21]

English took the geological sense as caldera in 1865, from descriptions of the volcanic landscapes of the Canaries.[22]

Timeline

  • 922 – first record of the word, as Corominas dates it.[3][4]
  • 1057 – a cartulary of San Millán de la Cogolla has caldera.[2]
  • 1134 – a charter of Fanlo has the assimilated form calleras.[2]
  • c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio (in a 14th-century copy) lists sartenes e calderas.[11][12]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the cauldrons of the baths.[14]
  • 1494 – sugar mills in the Canaries are recorded with their calderas of copper.[23]
  • 1495 – Corominas's first dates for the derivatives calderón and calderero.[4]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija translates caldera de cobre with Latin ahenum and caldarium.[24]
  • 1537 – the first record from the Americas, a caldera para la brea in Puerto Rico.[25]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias explains pendón y caldera and caldera de Pero Botello.[15]
  • 1729 – Autoridades has caldera de Pero Botero, “hell”.[16]
  • 1865 – English borrows the geological sense as caldera.[22]
  • 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the boiler of a steam engine.[18]
  • 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin caldaria.[26]
  • 1917 – Alemany records the Argentine sense “kettle for mate”.[21]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cauldron: a large metal pot with a rounded base, for heating or cooking something in it: Pusieron la caldera al fuego para la matanza.[5][1]
  2. A boiler in a central-heating system, where the water for the pipes and radiators is heated.[5][27]
  3. The boiler of a steam engine, whose steam drives the machine.[5]
  4. A closed metal vessel used for heating or evaporating liquids.[5]
  5. The brass or copper shell of a kettledrum.[5]
  6. (geology) A caldera: a very large depression with steep walls, formed by violent volcanic eruptions.[5][1]
  7. (heraldry) A cauldron shown with raised handles ending in serpents' heads; in Spain it was a sign of high nobility.[5]
  8. (mining) The lowest part of a well or shaft, where the water is collected to be pumped out.[5][27]
  9. (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay) A kettle for heating water.[5][20]

Word family

  • calderón
  • calderada
  • calderero
  • caldereta
  • calderilla
  • calderería
  • caldero
  • caldo
  • cálido
  • escaldar
  • Latin calidus
  • Portuguese caldeira

Usage notes

The phrase las calderas de Pedro Botero (also de Pero Botero) means hell, colloquially.[5][27] Caldera is also the name of a Chilean city.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. caldera
  3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 759
  4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caldo
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. caldera
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. caldarius
  7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 134
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. caldaria
  9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1268
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. caleō
  11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. caldera
  12. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 91
  13. ^ 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. 584
  14. ^ a b 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. caldera
  15. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 386
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 62
  17. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 313
  18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 135
  19. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. caldera
  20. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. caldera
  21. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 303
  22. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  23. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. caldera
  24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 308
  25. ^ 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. caldera
  26. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 188
  27. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caldera

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Caldera.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/caldera. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·