campeón

Forms

campeón m (plural campeones, feminine campeona, feminine plural campeonas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian campione, first in the form ⟨campión⟩.^[2] Menéndez Pidal had already observed that the word is not old in Castilian, and Corominas takes the date of its arrival as a sign of an Italian source.^[2][3][4][1] Italian has the word from its earliest texts, first for a man who fought a duel on behalf of another.^[2][5] It comes from Lombardic kamphio (“champion who fights for another”), found in Lombard charters, or, as Wiktionary has it, from Late Latin campiō and Frankish *kampijō.^[2][4][1] The Germanic word is a derivative of Proto-West Germanic *kamp (“field of military exercise, battlefield”), itself taken from Latin campus (“plain, field”), especially the Campus Martius where the Germanic soldiers of the Roman army were trained.^[2][3][6]

The same Germanic word, through Frankish, gave French champion, Old Occitan campion and Catalan campió, which Catalan has from the 13th century.^[2] An earlier Old Spanish champión had been taken from French: Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it of an emperor who fought as a fencer and champion in the amphitheatre.^[7][8][9] The usual 17th-century form was ⟨campión⟩.^[2] Corominas puts ⟨campeón⟩ down to the influence of the native campeador, to which the word is not directly related.^[2] The Academy's dictionaries of 1899 and 1917 still derived it from campear.^[10][11]

The Latin noun goes back to *kampo-, and de Vaan considers it a possible substrate word of European agriculture, since its link with Ancient Greek κάμπτω (kámptō, “to bend”) is hard to explain.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Jerónimo de Urrea's Diálogo de la verdadera honra militar (1566): a lord who has been challenged should not poner en mano de campión peso tan grande “put so great a burden in the hands of a champion” but come out himself.^[13] Corominas's first record is the third part of Ercilla's Araucana (1589–1590), and the form campeón is first in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[2][3] About 1611 Covarrubias already called campión an old Castilian word, for one who fights another in the lists.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The duel champion gave the senses “hero famed in arms” and “one who fights in single combat”, which Terreros recorded beside the moral sense of those who fight bravely for virtue or learning.^[14][4] The figurative sense “staunch defender of a cause or doctrine” was in the Academy's dictionary by 1899, and in 1813 newspapers in Cuzco and Caracas already called the defenders of the constitution and the patriots campeones.^[10][15] The modern sporting sense, the winner of a championship (campeonato), is now the first sense in the DLE.^[4][3]

In Paraguay and Argentina a campeón is also a prize animal shown at livestock fairs, and in Puerto Rico a man who dares anything.^[16][17] It is used as a familiar form of address to a man.^[1][18] The word passed into Tagalog as kampeon.^[1]

Timeline

• 1566 – first record, as campión, in Jerónimo de Urrea.^[13]
• 1589–1590 – Ercilla uses campión in the third part of the Araucana, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1611 – Covarrubias calls campión an old Castilian word.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the form campeón appears in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[2]
• 1786 – Terreros notes that the older form was champión.^[14]
• 1813 – first records from the Americas, in Cuzco and Caracas, for defenders of a cause.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary has the sense “defender of a cause”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or team that wins a championship; a champion: Fue campeona de ajedrez a los quince años.^[4][1]
2. A person who stoutly defends a cause or doctrine.^[4][19]
3. A hero famed in arms.^[4]
4. (historical) A man who fought in single combat in the duels and challenges of old.^[4][19]
5. (Paraguay, Argentina) A prize animal shown at livestock fairs as a model of breeding.^[16]

Word family

• campeonato

Related words

• campeador
• campo
• Italian campione
• French champion

Usage notes

The feminine is campeona.^[1][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 791
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. campeón
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. campeón
5. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. campeón
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. campeón
8. ^ 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. campeón
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 182
11. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. campión
14. ^ a b 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, 329
15. ^ 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. campeón
16. ^ 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. campeón
17. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr
18. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. campeón