califa

Forms

califa m (plural califas)^[1] Old Spanish also had forms taken straight from Arabic: halifa (in the Gran conquista de Ultramar and still in the 16th century in Mármol) and galdifa in the Poema de Alfonso XI.^[2][3] Juan Manuel's Crónica abreviada (c. 1320–1322) has galif, and the Crónica de veinte reyes spells calipha.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French calife, from Arabic خَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa, “successor, vicar”), the title of the successors of Muhammad.^[2][5][1] The Arabic noun is derived from خلف (ḵalafa, “to succeed”).^[6][7] Corominas takes the French route because Spanish does not normally render the Arabic /x/ with ⟨c⟩;^[2] French had the word from the 12th century, from the time of the Crusades.^[2] Corriente also thinks it probably came through other western European languages during the Crusades.^[8] The “Dictionnaire historique de la langue française” agrees that the Spanish word, recorded later than the French, was probably borrowed from French.^[9] Wiktionary puts calipha between the French and the Arabic word.^[1]

The same word is Portuguese califa, Catalan califa and Italian califfo.^[10][1] Older Catalan more often had galifa, used by Llull.^[11]

The forms taken directly from Andalusian Arabic, halifa and galdifa, did not prevail.^[2][8][1] Modern Spanish took jalifa separately from the Arabic of Morocco, for the sultan's deputy in the Spanish Protectorate.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is the Gran conquista de Ultramar (1293), in a manuscript of the National Library in Madrid: the crusaders' enemies sent their messengers al Califa de egipto “to the caliph of Egypt”, their very powerful lord.^[4] Corominas dated the word c. 1295, in the Primera crónica general of Alfonso X's school.^[2][6] Alonso quotes the same Gran conquista, which explains the caliph as a kind of pope of the Muslims who preached to the people.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its first sense, the title of the Muslim rulers who held supreme religious and civil power as Muhammad's successors.^[5][12] In 1611 Covarrubias spelled it calipha and tried to explain it from Greek, as meaning “the shining one”.^[13] Terreros noted in 1786 that it had meant the Prophet's vicar and was then used for the chief priest of the Muslims.^[14] The Academy defined it in 1817 as an Arabic word equal to “successor”; from 1884 its dictionary named the caliphs of Asia, Africa and Spain, and gave the Arabic etymon.^[15][16]

In colloquial and ironic use it became a nickname for famous bullfighters born in Córdoba, the city of the caliphs.^[5] In Chile it is a popular word for a lustful person and for anything erotic.^[17]

Timeline

• 1293 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar speaks of the caliph of Egypt.^[4]
• c. 1295 – the Primera crónica general, Corominas's first record.^[2][6]
• c. 1320–1322 – Juan Manuel's Crónica abreviada has the form galif.^[4]
• before 1348 – the Poema de Alfonso XI has the form galdifa.^[4][2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the spelling calipha.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary has califa with the derivative califato.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the Arabic etymon.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. caliph: the title of the Muslim princes (príncipe) who, as successors of Muhammad, held the highest religious and civil authority in parts of the Islamic world: El califa de Bagdad recibió a los embajadores.^[5][1]
2. (colloquial, ironic) A nickname for famous bullfighters (toreros) from Córdoba.^[5]
3. (Chile, colloquial) A lustful or sexually excited person; also used as an adjective for anything erotic or pornographic.^[17][7]

Word family

• califato
• califal

Related words

• jalifa
• Arabic خَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa)
• French calife

Usage notes

Mexican and United States Spanish also have a slang califa “Californian, a person of Mexican descent living in California”, a clipping of California that has nothing to do with the title.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 765
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. califa
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. califa
5. ^ 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. califa
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. califa
7. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 271
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. califa
11. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 429
12. ^ a b 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. 587
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 387
14. ^ 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, 316
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 160
16. ^ 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), p. 190
17. ^ 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. califa
18. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. s.v. califa
19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 186