charqui

Forms

charqui m (uncountable)^[1] Charque is a variant used beside charqui since the 16th century, and is the usual form in the Río de la Plata.^[2][3][4][5] The DLE also records charque as the word of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.^[6]

Etymology

It is most often explained as borrowed from Quechua charki (“dried meat”), a word the DLE and the DAMER write ch'arki.^[7][8][1] Friederici lists it as a Quechua word that also passed as a loan into Mapudungun.^[9] Román gives it as both Quechua and Aymara, and Rodríguez derives the Chilean word from Mapudungun, and further from Quechua, where it meant “jerked meat” and also “dry, thin”.^[10][11]

Corominas is more cautious: he calls the origin uncertain, perhaps indigenous, and doubts that the Quechua word, recorded in 1560, is not itself a Spanish loan, since Portuguese had enxerca and enxarca for dried meat, of Arabic origin, from the Middle Ages.^[2] The DRAE of 2001 still called the word of unknown origin.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Alonso Borregán's chronicle of the conquest of Peru, of about 1565, as a word of the Indians: carne seca que ellos llaman charque “dried meat that they call charque”.^[3] The form charqui follows in a 1575 ordinance for the Indian villages of La Paz, which speaks of the wool and the charqui the Indians made from their llamas.^[13] Corominas dates the word 1602.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the colonial chronicles the word named the dried llama meat of the Andes; in 1653 Bernabé Cobo glossed it with the Spanish cecina “salted dried meat”, and in 1748 Ulloa set it beside tasajo.^[13][14] Later it was made mostly of beef or horse meat, cut in thin strips, lightly salted and dried in the sun.^[15][14] Granada noted in 1890 that the Andean provinces of Argentina said charqui while the rest of the country and Uruguay said charque.^[5]

In Chile charqui also names spiral slices of quince, pumpkin, pears or tomatoes dried in the sun for winter.^[15][10][4] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 adds a Bolivian sense, a mass of native copper.^[16] Through American Spanish the word gave English jerky, first recorded in 1850.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1565 – Alonso Borregán writes charque for the dried meat of the Indians of Peru.^[3]
• 1575 – an ordinance for the Indian villages of La Paz has the form charqui.^[13]
• 1602 – the date of first record in Corominas's dictionary.^[2]
• 1653 – Bernabé Cobo explains it as the Indians' name for cecina.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá's dictionary lists it as a South American word.^[18]
• 1850 – English jerky is first recorded.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Andes, Southern Cone) jerky, meat salted and dried in the air or the sun so that it keeps: Llevaban charqui y maíz tostado para el viaje.^[7][8][1]
2. (Chile) Slices of fruit or vegetables dried in the sun.^[15][4]

Word family

• charquear

Related words

• charquicán
• cecina
• tasajo
• English jerky

Usage notes

Chilean and Río de la Plata phrases include ¡ojo al charqui! “look out!” and hacer charqui a person or thing, “to cut to pieces, mistreat”.^[4] Charquicán, a Chilean stew once made with charqui, comes from the Mapudungun phrase for “to cook charqui”.^[2][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. charque
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. charque
4. ^ a b c d Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 306
5. ^ a b Granada, Daniel (1890), Vocabulario rioplatense razonado, 2nd ed., Montevideo: Imprenta Rural, p. 184
6. ^ 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. charque
7. ^ a b 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. charqui
8. ^ 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. charqui
9. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 166
10. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 18
11. ^ Rodríguez, Zorobabel (1875), Diccionario de chilenismos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente, p. 138
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. charqui
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. charqui
14. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
15. ^ a b c Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. s.v. charqui
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 509
17. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 334
19. ^ 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. charquicán