carpa

carpa¹ carp (fish)

Pronunciation

• /ˈkaɾpa/, [ˈkaɾ.pa]^[1]

Forms

carpa f (plural carpas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the fish is inherited from Late Latin carpa, which is recorded once in Latin, in Cassiodorus in the 6th century.^[2][3][4][1] The DLE takes the Late Latin word from Gothic *karpa.^[4] Corominas calls it Germanic, a word of unknown origin that Germanic shares with Baltic, Slavic and Celtic,^[2][5] and García de Diego calls it Visigothic.^[3] Wiktionary notes that the Gothic form is surmised from the Romance words, compares Old High German karpho, and suggests from the unshifted Germanic /k/ that the word came from a non-Indo-European language of the Alps and the Danube basin.^[1] The DHLF says the Late Latin word named a large fish of the Danube and was probably borrowed from a language of eastern Europe, perhaps through Gothic.^[6]

The same word is Portuguese carpa, Galician carpa, Asturian carpa, Catalan carpa,^[3][7] French carpe and Italian carpa; Romanian crap is a Slavic word.^[8] Granado in 1599 and Huerta in 1624 use carpión, taken from Italian carpione, a word of the same origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to Percivale's dictionary of 1599, followed by the Pícara Justina of 1605.^[2][5] The sense is a river fish.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades described it as a well-known fish of rivers and ponds, like the tench but lighter in colour, and reported Covarrubias's view that the word is French, because the fish was brought from France or from the lakes of Savoy.^[9] Terreros in 1786 described a freshwater fish living on mud and weed, with French carpe and Latin cyprinus.^[10] The Academy's dictionary first gave the etymology, from Latin carpa, in 1884,^[11] and in 1899 it added a species from China, red and golden in colour.^[12] The current definition adds that some species are bred as ornamental fish.^[4]

Timeline

• 6th century – Latin carpa is recorded in Cassiodorus.^[2][3]
• 1599 – first record of the Spanish word, in Percivale;^[11] Granado has the Italian form carpión.^[2][5]
• 1605 – the Pícara Justina uses it.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades describes the fish and reports Covarrubias's view that the word is French.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin carpa.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the red and golden species from China.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A carp: a freshwater teleost fish, greenish above and yellow below, with large scales, a single dorsal fin and a small toothless mouth with two short barbels; some species are bred as ornamental fish.^[4][1][13]

carpa² tent, big top

Pronunciation

• /ˈkaɾpa/, [ˈkaɾ.pa]^[1]

Forms

carpa f (plural carpas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the tent is most likely borrowed from Quechua karpa (“awning; hut of cane or straw”), as the DLE, Lenz, Arona and Wiktionary say.^{[4][14][15][1]} Corominas and the BDELC call the origin uncertain, and Vox says it is perhaps Quechua.^[2][16][17]

Corominas found it strange that a Quechua word should spread north of Ecuador, and noted that the chroniclers of the Indies do not use it.^[2] He rejected Lafone's derivation from Quechua kkara (“skin, hide”), whose velar /k/ differs from the palatal /k/ of the tent word, and suggested that the Quechua word may itself be a Hispanism, from carpeta taken for a diminutive.^[2] He granted that carppa (“awning”) is already in the Quechua vocabularies of Domingo de Santo Tomás (1560), González Holguín (1608) and Torres Rubio (1619), which supports a Quechua origin without proving it.^[2] The BDELC leaves open whether the Quechua word is the parent or the child of the Spanish one.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first records are Zorobabel Rodríguez's Chilean dictionary of 1875 and Juan de Arona's Peruvian one (1861–1883).^[2] Boyd-Bowman has an earlier record from Lima in 1775: carpa o toldo para atajar los rayos del sol “a carpa or awning to keep off the sun's rays”.^[18]

Semantic evolution

In 1865 a Uruguayan text speaks of soldiers marching with knapsack and carpa on their back, among the tents and shelters of a camp.^[18] Rodríguez in Chile described a tent improvised from stakes driven into the ground and covered with hide or canvas,^[19] and Arona noted that in Peru everyone used it for an awning, a military pavilion or a campaign tent, though it was not in the dictionary.^[15] Lenz added the light structures put up at fairs and fiestas for selling and entertainment.^[14] The Academy admitted it in 1884 as a Peruvianism.^[2]

Corominas stressed that it means any awning, such as the cover of a cart, and heard it in Colombia for a large covered fairground.^[2] In Mexico it came to mean the circus tent and the shed where popular comic shows were played,^[20] whence a kind of comic and musical theatre under canvas.^[1] Today it means a camping tent across Spanish America, a beach tent, a canvas cover for a vehicle and other awnings,^[21] and in Spain the big top of a circus or a marquee.^[4] The word passed to Portuguese as a slang term for a gambling place, from the Spanish of the River Plate.^[22]

Timeline

• 1560 – the Quechua word carppa “awning” is in Domingo de Santo Tomás's vocabulary.^[2][16]
• 1775 – first record of the Spanish word, in Lima.^[18]
• 1865 – used in Uruguay for a soldier's tent.^[18]
• 1875 – Rodríguez records it in Chile.^[2][19]
• 1883 – Arona records it in Peru as a Quechua word.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary admits it as a Peruvianism.^[2]
• 1942 – Santamaría records the Mexican sense “circus tent”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large awning covering a circus or another large space; a big top, marquee: Montaron la carpa en la plaza del pueblo.^[4][1][17]
2. (Latin America) A tent, especially for camping.^[4][21][1]
3. (Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela) A beach tent.^[4][21]
4. (Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay) A booth put up during popular fiestas, where food and drink are sold.^[4]
5. (Mexico, theatre) A kind of comic and musical show performed under a tent.^[1][20]