cantador

Forms

cantador (feminine cantadora, masculine plural cantadores, feminine plural cantadoras)^[1] Berceo writes aves cantadores “singing birds”, with no feminine ending: agent nouns in -dor had hardly begun to form a feminine in his time.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish cantar + -dor, as the DLE and Corominas present it.^[3][4] Wiktionary, the Academy's 1884 dictionary and Alemany instead derive it from Latin cantātor (“singer, musician”), through Old Spanish cantador.^[1][5][6] The Latin noun is formed from cantō (“to sing”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[7][1]

Barcia compared Italian cantatore, French chanteur, Old Occitan cantador and Catalan cantador.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Fazienda de Ultramar, of 1200–1250 (manuscript of about 1211–1235).^[9][10] The Fuero Juzgo (1254?) names it beside the player of an instrument: seer cantador. o tannedor de trompas “to be a singer or a player of trumpets”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant a singer, as a noun, and singing, as an adjective: Berceo's Milagros has las aves cantadores, and Martínez de Toledo's Corbacho (1438) el gallo mio buen cantador.^[12][13] Autoridades (1729) defined it as one who sings by habit or for a living.^[14] From 1843 the Academy marked it as old, a synonym of cantor; in 1869 it added that common people still used it for a person good at singing.^[15][16] In 1884 the sense became “a person good at singing popular coplas”, which the DLE keeps, with a second sense for those who do it as a trade.^[5][3]

Regional senses include “liar” in Guatemala and “informer” in El Salvador; in Leonese the feminine and masculine forms also name the rooster and a tendon.^[17][18] In New Mexico Spanish a cantador is a folk singer.^[19]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – cantador in the Fazienda de Ultramar.^[9][10]
• 1254? – the Fuero Juzgo uses cantador for a singer.^[11]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor uses it as a noun.^[13]
• 1438 – the Corbacho calls a rooster buen cantador.^[12]
• 1729 – Autoridades: one who sings by habit or for a living.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy marks the word as old, equal to cantor.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “singer of popular coplas” and the Latin etymology.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (obsolete) singing; also used as a noun, a cantor.^[3][1]
2. (Guatemala, colloquial) Of a person: lying and crafty.^[17]

Noun

1. A person with a talent for singing popular songs, especially coplas: En la feria del pueblo actuó un cantador de coplas muy aplaudido.^[3][20]
2. A person who sings popular songs for a living.^[3]
3. (El Salvador) An informer.^[17]

Related words

• cantor
• cantaor
• cantante
• Latin cantātor

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 208
3. ^ 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. cantador
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cantar
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 201
6. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 321
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 746
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cantador
10. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. cantador
11. ^ 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. cantador
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. 608
13. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 96
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 120
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 135
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 144
17. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cantador
18. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. cantador
19. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 47
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cantador