cesta

Forms

cesta f (plural cestas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote both cesta and çesta.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cesta, also spelt with ⟨ç⟩, inherited from Latin cista (“box, chest, basket”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas gives the Latin form as cēsta in the DCECH and with a short ĭ in the Breve diccionario, and Niermeyer records Medieval Latin cesta as another spelling of the same word.^[3][4][6]

The same Latin word survives in Portuguese cesta, Italian cesta and the diminutive Catalan cistella, and it was borrowed early into Germanic, as German Kiste, chest and Old Norse kista.^[3][7] Wiktionary also compares the English learned word cist.^[1]

Latin borrowed the word from Ancient Greek κίστη (kístē, “basket, chest”), already in the Odyssey.^[8][1] Wiktionary calls the Greek word of unknown substrate origin, comparing only Celtic words for a wicker basket.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Spanish record that survives in a near-contemporary copy is in Alfonso X's Primera Partida (1256–1263, in a copy of about 1290), which lists cestas among the things a poor cleric may make without shame, beside books, chests and nets.^[9][10] The sense is already “basket woven of wicker or reeds”.^[10] DEMel has an earlier plural cestas in a Leonese document of 1245, and the Sendebar (c. 1253, in a 15th-century copy) has çesta.^[2][9] Corominas's first record is in Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The derivative cesto, for a basket of another shape, is recorded earlier than cesta itself, in Berceo, and Corominas stresses how old and frequent it is.^[3][4] Covarrubias in 1611 says that a large, deep basket is called cesto, and that the big ones are used at the grape harvest.^[11] Bénaben notes that, as in other Spanish pairs, the feminine generally names the larger object.^[12] Moliner notes that canasta, canasto and cesto are used for the same object in different regions.^[13]

The Academy's dictionaries from 1817 recorded the phrase decir unas veces cesta y otras ballesta, for someone who contradicts himself.^[14][15] The sense “curved wicker scoop used in pelota” dates from 1896;^[1] Corominas holds that it is the same word, against the Academy's derivation from the archaeological cesto.^[3] The modern dictionary adds a light carriage with a wicker body, and in basketball the basket itself.^[5][1] In Venezuela cesta básica is the set of price-controlled basic foods.^[16] The word reached the Americas early: a 1548 text from Santo Domingo describes the local baskets used for keeping clothes.^[17]

Timeline

• 1245 – DEMel's first record, the plural cestas in a Leonese document.^[2]
• c. 1253 – çesta in the Sendebar, known from a 15th-century copy.^[9]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida names cestas among the crafts allowed to clerics.^[9][10]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses the word in the Libro de buen amor, Corominas's first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1378–1406 – López de Ayala writes that water in a basket will not last long.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin cista and fiscina as equivalents.^[18]
• 1546 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from Latin cista and contrasts it with cesto.^[11]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes it as a vessel woven of thin wicker, often with a handle.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin cista.^[20]
• 1896 – first record of the sense “pelota scoop”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A basket woven of mimbre, reeds, canes or other pliant wood, used to gather or carry clothes, fruit and other things: Volvió del huerto con la cesta llena de tomates.^[5][1]
2. (sports) The curved scoop of woven strips of chestnut wood, strapped to the hand, used to play pelota (jai alai).^[5][21]
3. A four-seat carriage with a wicker body and a hood with folding curtains.^[5]
4. (basketball) The basket; canasta.^[5]
5. (Spain, Central America, Venezuela) A plastic laundry basket.^[1]

Word family

• cestero
• cesto
• cestería
• encestar

Related words

• Latin cista
• Portuguese cesta

Usage notes

Spanish has many words for a basket: Moliner gives cesta as the most widespread, with canasta, canasto and cesto in regional use.^[13] Cesta de la compra is both the shopping basket and, in economics, the basket of goods used to measure prices.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cesta
3. ^ 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. 2, 58
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cesta
5. ^ 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. cesta
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. cesta
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1661
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cista
9. ^ 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. cesta
10. ^ a b c 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. cesta
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. 591
12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cesta
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cesta
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 198
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 161
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cesta
17. ^ 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. cesta
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 324
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 295
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 239
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cesta