cambiador

Forms

cambiador (feminine cambiadora, masculine plural cambiadores, feminine plural cambiadoras)^[1] Old Spanish texts write it camiador, canbiador, cambiador and, more rarely, cameador.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish cambiar + -dor, the agent noun and adjective of the verb.^[1][3] The old texts have the forms Old Spanish camiador and canbiador beside cambiador.^[2][4]

The verb goes back to Late Latin cambiare (“to exchange”), a word of Celtic origin.^[5] In the 19th century Echegaray compared Medieval Latin cambiator, Italian cambiatore and Catalan cambiador.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prose of Alfonso X has the noun in the sense “money changer” in an astrological text dated about 1254, which foretells lordship sobre los camiadores “over the money changers”.^[4] Alonso quotes the same sense from the Alfonsine Crónica general (about 1270): Havia una calle de traperos e cambiadores “there was a street of cloth dealers and money changers”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word mostly named the money changer: Alfonso de Palencia (1490) explains the Latin trapezitae as cambiadores who count money on tables, and Nebrija gives mensarius and argentarius as its Latin equivalents.^[7][9] The general adjective “that changes” is recorded from about 1400, in a Latin–Spanish glossary.^[7]

Autoridades (1729) defines it first as anyone who exchanges a thing with another, then more narrowly as the public changer licensed to transfer money from place to place; in the cant of thieves it was the keeper of a brothel, a sense taken from Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary.^[8][10] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 already marks the money-changing senses as old, with cambista as the current word.^[11] In 1899 it became an adjective and noun cambiador, ra, “that changes”.^[12]

In the Americas Alemany (1917) records the railway switchman of Chile and Mexico and a Chilean name for a machine part that shifts the belt from one pulley to the other.^[13][14] The modern sense “changing mat” for babies is in the Academy's dictionary of 2001;^[15][16] Vox also uses the word for a changing table.^[15][16] In the Dominican Republic a cambiadora is also a currency exchange office.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1254 – an astrological text of Alfonso X's prose speaks of camiadores, “money changers”.^[4]
• c. 1270 – the Crónica general mentions a street of cambiadores.^[7]
• c. 1400 – a Latin–Spanish glossary uses canbiador as an adjective, “that changes”.^[7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives mensarius and argentarius as its Latin equivalents.^[7][9]
• 1572 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, among the trades of a list.^[17]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary of thieves' cant gives the sense “brothel keeper”.^[10]
• 1729 – Autoridades defines the exchanger, the licensed money changer and the cant sense.^[8]
• 1817 – the Academy marks the money-changing senses as old.^[11]
• 1917 – Alemany records the railway switchman of Chile and Mexico.^[13]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary adds the baby's changing mat.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That changes.^[18][1]

Noun

1. A changing mat: a small sheet of cloth or plastic on which a baby's nappy (pañal) is changed: Pon el cambiador en la cama antes de vestir al niño.^[18][16]
2. A changing table, a piece of furniture made for changing babies.^[16]
3. (Chile, Mexico) A railway switchman (guardagujas).^[18][19][1]
4. (Chile) In machines, the part that moves the belt from the fixed pulley (polea) to the loose one and back.^[18][19]
5. (obsolete) A money changer (cambista).^[18][1]

Related words

• cambiar
• cambio
• cambista

Usage notes

In the old cant of thieves (germanía) a cambiador was the keeper of a brothel.^[10][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cambiador
3. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. cambiador
4. ^ a b c 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. cambiador
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cambiar
6. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 65
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. 596
8. ^ 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, 88
9. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 309
10. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. s.v. cambiador
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 163
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 180
13. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 311
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 196
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cambiador
16. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cambiador
17. ^ 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. cambiador
18. ^ 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. cambiador
19. ^ 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. cambiador