charpa

Forms

charpa f (plural charpas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French écharpe (“baldric, sash; sling”), earlier Old French escherpe.^[2][3][4] Corominas thinks it probably came through Catalan xarpa, a word of bandits and mountain guerrillas that is frequent in Catalan from 1625, since his first Spanish record is in a play about the Catalan bandit Serrallonga.^[2]

The French word goes back to Frankish *skerpa, compared with Old Norse skreppa and Old English scrippe (“bag carried on a bandolier”).^[2][3] Corominas, after Frings and Wartburg, takes the Frankish word itself from Latin scirpea (“made of rushes”), which then passed back from Frankish into French.^[2] The DHLF gives the French word from v. 1135, as escharpe, and derives it from the Frankish word for a basket of rushes, from scirpus (“rush”), noting Medieval Latin scrippa (“pilgrim's satchel”) in 754–755.^[5] Wiktionary instead traces it to Proto-Germanic *skarō (“troop, share”).^[1] The DLE and García de Diego also start from this Germanic word, glossed “band”, which García de Diego calls Lombard.^[4][6]

Older views are abandoned: the Academy derived it from Italian sciarpa in 1884 and 1899, Alemany from an Old High German ⟨scharpe⟩ that, according to Corominas, does not exist (the German word Schärpe is a Gallicism), and Echegaray from carpō (“to pluck”).^[7][8][2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH has an isolated early record in the Marqués de Santillana's El Sueño (c. 1430), among the ornaments of white robes lined with ermine: charpas e ricas çinturas sotiles e bien obradas “sashes and rich belts, fine and well made”.^[10] Corominas dates the word from Luis Vélez de Guevara (died 1644), in El catalán Serrallonga (1634): Ea, a quitar, compañeros, de las charpas las pistolas “Come, comrades, take the pistols from the belts”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the charpa was the belt in which the Catalan bandits carried their pistols: Francisco Manuel de Melo describes in 1645 their short arquebuses hanging from a broad leather band worn from one shoulder to the opposite side.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades described it as a broad belt of buff leather with a square piece of hide at the left side, on which the pistols hung from loops, held up by a strap over the right shoulder.^[11] Terreros glossed it with the French écharpe and the Italian ciarpa.^[12]

Domínguez recorded in 1846 the surgical sense, a bandage that holds the arm up against the chest, and a nautical phrase en charpa.^[13] The DLE now gives the sling as the second sense.^[4][14] In Central America it was once used for a sword or sabre.^[15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1430 – isolated record in Santillana's El Sueño, for a sash.^[10]
• 1634 – Vélez de Guevara's El catalán Serrallonga, the DCECH's first record.^[2][10]
• 1645 – Melo describes the bandits' pistol belt called charpa.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes the pistol belt.^[11]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the surgical sense “sling”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Italian sciarpa.^[17]
• 2001 – the Academy gives its origin as French écharpe.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A baldric or belt with a piece of leather and hooks at the waist, for carrying firearms.^[4][1]
2. (medicine) A sling for an injured arm; a cabestrillo.^[4][14]
3. (Central America, obsolete) A sword or sabre.^[15]

Related words

• echarpe
• French écharpe
• Catalan xarpa

Usage notes

Regionally the spelling names other things: in Andalusia a gang of rogues, in León an iron plate of a kitchen range that regulates the draught, and in Puerto Rico a bottle cap used in a children's game.^[19][20][21]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 341
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. charpa
4. ^ 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. charpa
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. écharpe
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. skerpa
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 304
8. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 509
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 583
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. charpa
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 311
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 413
13. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 523
14. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. charpa
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. charpa
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 472
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 328
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. charpa
19. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 194
20. ^ 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. charpa
21. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. charpa