cimarra

Forms

cimarra f^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Spanish cimarrón (“runaway, wild”).^[2][3] Corominas derives it from the phrase hacer la cimarrona, and rejects Lenz's view that the Chilean word was the source of the adjective.^[3][4] A Chilean writer of 1882 already called it a noun derived from that adjective.^[5] Corominas derives the adjective itself probably from cima “summit”, after the mountains where the runaways fled.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in Boyd-Bowman is from Chile in 1862, of a boy who spent his turbulent childhood en una perpetua cimarra.^[7] Earlier hits in the CDH are the place name Cimarra and personal names.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Corominas calls it a modern and purely local Chilean word.^[3] Lenz described it as the fault of a schoolboy who goes off to the fields or parks instead of school, and recorded cimarrero for the truant.^[4] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 gave it for Chile and Argentina, and the DAMER for Chile and Uruguay.^[8][1] In Nicaragua cimarra is also a shrub, Jacquinia aurantiaca.^[1]

Timeline

• 1862 – a Chilean example.^[7]
• 1882 – Pérez Rosales calls it a Chilean noun derived from cimarrón.^[5]
• 1904–1910 – Lenz describes the schoolboys' phrase hacer la cimarra.^[4]
• 1917 – Alemany records the phrase for Chile and Argentina.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Chile, Uruguay, Argentina; colloquial) truancy, staying away from school on purpose, chiefly in hacer (la) cimarra “to play truant”, the same as hacer novillos: Esa mañana hicieron la cimarra y se fueron a la playa.^[2][1][9]
2. (Nicaragua) A spiny shrub with small hard fruit, Jacquinia aurantiaca.^[1]

Related words

• cimarrón
• cima

Usage notes

Malaret gives the verb cimarrear “to play truant” for Chile.^[10] An older cimarra, a variant of zamarra “sheepskin jacket”, is recorded by Gonzalo de Segovia;^[11] Tiscornia and Spitzer derived cimarrón from it, which Corominas thinks unlikely.^[3][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cimarra
2. ^ 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. cimarra
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 76
4. ^ 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. cimarra
5. ^ 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. cimarra
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cimarrón
7. ^ 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. cimarra
8. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 381
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cimarra
10. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 236
11. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
12. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 6, 814