can

Forms

can m (plural canes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin canis (“dog”).^[2][3][4][1] The word survives in every Romance language: Portuguese cão, Galician can, Catalan ca, French chien, Italian cane and Romanian câine.^[2][5][6]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ, whose other descendants include Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn).^[1][7] The Latin vowel ⟨a⟩ is irregular and has had several ad hoc explanations.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from 963.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) it is already an insult: the Cid calls the Infantes of Carrión canes traidores, “treacherous dogs”.^[8] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250) rules on el can que matare lobo, “the dog that kills a wolf”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

perro appears around 1200 and soon pushed can aside; from the 14th century can was an old word, used in poetry and in figurative senses, and as an insult until the Golden Age.^[2] Corominas explains this decline by the clash between caña “cane” and an expected caña “bitch” from Vulgar Latin *cania, since Castilian and Catalan, the only two languages that lost the word in popular speech, are the two in which Latin -nn- and -ni- fell together.^[2] Alfonso X used it for the dog, for the constellation of the Great Dog (can del podiente) and as a term of abuse.^[9] Autoridades called it an old word kept only in Asturias, Galicia and a few other places, and among poets; it also recorded can for the ace of the dice.^[10]

The transferred senses are technical: in architecture the end of a beam that juts out of a wall under the cornice, a corbel or modillion; in weapons the trigger of a gun; and a small bronze cannon.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 963 – first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it as an insult.^[8]
• c. 1200 – perro appears and begins to replace can.^[2]
• 1277 – Alfonso X's astronomical books call the Great Dog el can mayor.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: can, perro o perra, Latin canis.^[12]
• 1527 – encanamento, a row of corbels, in the ordinances of Seville.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades calls the word old, kept in Asturias, Galicia and in poetry.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A dog (perro): El can del pastor guardaba el rebaño.^[4][1][11]
2. (historical) A small bronze piece of old artillery.^[4]
3. The trigger (gatillo) of a firearm.^[4]
4. (architecture) The head of a ceiling beam that rests on the wall and juts out to support the cornice; a modillion (modillón) or corbel (canecillo).^[4][13]
5. (regional) In the game of the spinning top, each of the blows given to the top that has lost.^[4]
6. (obsolete) The ace (as) of a die.^[4][10]

Word family

• canecillo
• encanamento
• canil

Related words

• perro
• canalla
• canícula
• canino
• cánido
• Latin canis

Usage notes

The DLE's can² is the title of the Tartar and Mongol rulers, also spelt kan.^[14][15] Alonso records it from the 14th century, and Corriente derives it from Turkish han, probably through Italian and French.^[16][17] In the Dominican Republic can is a party, a lively gathering or a mess, a word the DHLE takes as perhaps of African origin.^[18][19][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 794
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. can
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. can
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1592
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. can
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. canis
8. ^ 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. can
9. ^ 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. can
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 103
11. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. can
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 309
13. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. can 1
14. ^ 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. can2
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. can
16. ^ 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. 601
17. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 277
18. ^ 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. can
19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. can
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. can