caníbal

Forms

caníbal m or f (masculine and feminine plural caníbales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Carib carib (“Carib”), the name of the Carib people, which reached the Spaniards through an Arawakan language of the islands, with the ending -al.^[2] Wiktionary derives it instead from caríbal, a form of caribe.^[1] Bénaben also takes it from an Arawakan name for the Caribs of the Antilles, an alteration of the name the people used of themselves.^[3] Etymonline explains Columbus's form as his rendering of the Caribs' name for themselves, which modern transliterations give as kalino or karina.^[4]

In the diaries of Columbus's first two voyages the name appears in eight different forms, used almost at random, from the plural of the headword to forms close to the Carib name itself.^[5] Friederici puts this down to poor communication with the islanders rather than to dialects.^[5] Bishop Alessandro Geraldini later connected the word with Latin canis (“dog”), and the link was taken up by later writers.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Columbus's diary for 23 November 1492, where the islanders speak of people with one eye in the forehead and others que se llamavan caníbales, a quien mostravan tener gran miedo, “who were called cannibals, of whom they showed great fear”.^[7][5] In Columbus's reports of 1493–1495 the caníbales are the people of the islands to the east, and men, women and children of them were sent back to the Catholic Monarchs on the ships.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the start caníbales and caribes were used as fully equivalent names for the man-eating islanders;^[5] Peter Martyr wrote of Canibales... sive Caribes and Las Casas said that those once called caníbales were now called caribes.^[5] In colonial Spanish caribe won out and came to mean “man-eater” until the 19th century, when caníbal came back to replace it under the influence of English and French, where it had become general, with its derivative canibalismo.^[8] The word reached French by 1515 and English in the 1550s.^[4]

The Academy's dictionary of 1869 defined it as the name given to the man-eaters of America, and that of 1899 as a savage of the Antilles held to be a man-eater.^[9][10] Today it means any eater of human flesh, a cruel and fierce person, and in zoology an animal that eats others of its own species.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1492 – Columbus records the name caníbales on 23 November.^[7][5]
• 1494 – Columbus's memorial to the Catholic Monarchs, written in Santo Domingo.^[12][7]
• 1515 – caníbales o caribes in Tierra Firme;^[12][4] French has the word by this year.^[12][4]
• 1519 – Fernández de Enciso's Suma de geografía calls the people of a coast canibales que comen carne humana.^[13]
• 1550s – the English word cannibal is first recorded.^[4]
• 1869 – first in the Academy's dictionary, of the man-eaters of America.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cannibal, man-eating; also as a noun: Los náufragos temían caer en manos de una tribu caníbal.^[2][1]
2. Of a person: belonging to one of the indigenous peoples of the Antilles who were once held to be man-eaters; also as a noun.^[2]
3. Of a person: cruel and ferocious; also as a noun.^[2][14]
4. (zoology) Of an animal: that eats others of its own species.^[2][11]

Word family

• canibalismo

Related words

• caríbal
• caribe
• English cannibal

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. caníbal
3. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. caníbal
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 143
6. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 239
7. ^ 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. caníbal
8. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 238
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 143
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 185
11. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caníbal
12. ^ a b c 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. caniba
13. ^ Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. caníbal
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 205