cargo

Forms

cargo m (plural cargos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Spanish cargar (“to load”).^[2][3][4] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of the verb.^[5][6]

cargar, first recorded in 972, continues Vulgar Latin carricare, which is found in the Visigothic law code in the sense “to carry, convey”; it is derived from carrus (“cart”), a Latin word of Celtic origin.^[5][6][7] The same verb is Portuguese carregar and Catalan carregar, which keep a fuller form, and French charger.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun to about 1300, to a document of 1295–1317 in the Memorias de Fernando IV.^[6][5] The CDH has it earlier, in a privilege of 1253 granting Martín Meléndez de Fornilleros estates in Seville con çierto cargo de seuiçio “with a certain obligation of service”.^[8] The Calila e Dimna (1251, in a copy of about 1400) speaks of a grant cargo de pecado “a great burden of sin”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant a load or weight, as in the Castigos of 1292–93, where Samson is made to carry cargos;^[4][10] Nebrija still glossed it as “any weight”, Latin onus and pondus.^[4][10] Covarrubias explained that offices and governments are called cargos because of the burden and care they bring, a play on Latin honos and onus; he also recorded the cargo and descargo of accounts and the cargos brought against an official at his review.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the act of loading ships, an obligation, and an office or dignity.^[12]

In the Americas the word appears from 1519 for an office and for the charge in accounts.^[13] In Peru, Chile and Argentina it also names the clerk's note recording when a court document was filed, and in Peru the rotating duty of organising the patron saint's feast.^[14] Wiktionary records the noun, with a feminine carga, for a person in a senior post, a sense the DLE gives as “person who holds a post”.^[1][15]

Timeline

• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna (in a later copy) speaks of a burden of sin.^[8]
• 1253 – a privilege of Alfonso X grants estates con çierto cargo de seuiçio.^[8]
• 1292–1293 – the Castigos del rey don Sancho IV use it for loads and for burdens.^[4][8]
• 1295–1317 – the first record in the DCECH, in the Memorias de Fernando IV.^[5]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it as “any weight”.^[10]
• 1519 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, for an office.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains why offices are called cargos.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the loading of ships, an obligation and an office.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary lists technical senses: a quantity of stone, a stack of olive baskets in the press, a measure of timber.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of loading.^[15]
2. A post, office or dignity: Ocupa un cargo en el ministerio.^[15][1]
3. A person who holds a post, a higher-up: un alto cargo.^[15][1]
4. An obligation to do or fulfil something.^[15]
5. Charge, care, custody: a cargo de, hacerse cargo de.^[15][1]
6. A fault laid at someone's door, an accusation: pliego de cargos, testigo de cargo.^[15][1]
7. (accounting) A debit; a payment charged to an account: con cargo a.^[15][1]
8. A load, a weight.^[15][1]
9. A quantity of stone for masonry or road-making, about a third of a cubic metre.^[15]
10. A stack of baskets of ground olives set to be pressed; the quantity of trodden grapes pressed at one time.^[15]
11. (Granada) A unit of measure for timber, one cubic vara.^[15]
12. (Salamanca) A lintel.^[15]
13. (heraldry) A charge.^[1]

Related words

• carga
• cargante
• cargar
• descargo
• encargo
• sobrecargo
• Latin carrus

Usage notes

Cargo is also the first-person singular present of cargar (yo cargo).^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1492
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 151
4. ^ a b c d 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. 629
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 868
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cargar
7. ^ 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. cargar
8. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cargo
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cargo
10. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 311
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 441
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. cargo
13. ^ 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. cargo
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cargo
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cargo
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 213