cobre

Forms

cobre m (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cuprum (“copper”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word comes from cyprium, short for aes Cyprium (“Cypriot bronze”), after Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros), the island of Cyprus, where the metal was mined in quantity.^[2][5][1] Bénaben explains the Latin neuter ending by the model of the other metal names, aurum (“gold”), ferrum (“iron”) and argentum (“silver”).^[5]

The same word is Portuguese cobre, Galician cobre, Asturian cobre, Catalan coure and Occitan coure.^[2][6][7] The Catalan and Occitan forms go back to a popular variant, Vulgar Latin *cubrum, with the Greek /p/ heard as a Latin /b/.^[2][8]

The final vowel of the Spanish and Portuguese word is irregular, since a final /o/ would be expected.^[2][1] Américo Castro put it down to the influence of the Catalan and Occitan word.^[2] Corominas objects that the Spanish word cannot simply be a Catalanism, because its inner consonant differs, and that a native form would hardly have changed only its last vowel under foreign influence.^[2] He suggests instead a dissimilation of the vowels, as in golpe and molde, or the influence of its synonym and rival alambre, and Wiktionary favours the latter.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date the word from Gonzalo de Berceo (1220–1250).^[2][3] In Del sacrificio de la misa, describing the furnishings of the Temple, Berceo writes Hy sedie una mesa de cobre bien labrada “there stood a table of finely worked copper”;^[9][10][11] Lanchetas remarks that in Exodus the table was of wood overlaid with gold.^[9][10][11] DEMel cites cobre from the Council of Coyanza of 1050, but Corominas holds that the Romance version of that text is of the 13th century.^[12][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for the metal and things made of it: a giant's club of copper in the Libro de Alexandre, copper vessels in the Lapidario, and cobre tinto “dyed copper” for brass in Alfonso X's astrological works.^[11][13] Nebrija gave the Latin aes cyprium and the Greek-derived chalcos.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the proverb hidalgo pobre, jarro de plata y olla de cobre and the phrase batir el cobre “to make a great noise and work hard at a business”, and suggested that cobrar came from cobre, because copper was used in buying and selling before gold and silver.^[15]

The Academy added the copper kitchenware in 1817, with the phrases batir el cobre and batirse el cobre and the proverb cobre gana cobre, que no huesos del hombre “money makes money, not a man's bones”.^[16] Alemany in 1917 recorded the brass instruments of an orchestra, a one-cent coin in Argentina and Chile, and in Cuba the copper vessels of a sugar mill.^[17] The copperware of the sugar mills is attested in the Canaries from 1494.^[18] Today cobre means money in popular speech in several countries of Latin America.^[19] In Colombia and Mexico enseñar el cobre means to show one's true, common nature.^[20][21]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa has una mesa de cobre.^[3][2][11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has a vessel de cobre estannado “of tinned copper”.^[13]
• 1277 – cobre tinto for brass in an astrological treatise of Alfonso X.^[13]
• 1494 – copper vessels of a sugar mill in Gran Canaria.^[18]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, a plato de cobre y alambre in Puerto Rico.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records batir el cobre and the proverb of the poor hidalgo.^[15]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives it from Latin cuprum and aes Cyprium.^[23]
• 1817 – the Academy adds copper kitchenware.^[16]
• 1917 – Alemany records the brass instruments of an orchestra.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. copper: the reddish-brown, malleable metallic element with atomic number 29 (symbol Cu), a very good conductor of heat and electricity, used in wire, coins and alloys such as bronce and latón.^[4][1]
2. Copper kitchenware, a set of copper pots and pans.^[4]
3. (music, in the plural) The brass section of an orchestra.^[4][24]
4. (Latin America, popular) money.^[19][25]

Word family

• cobrizo
• cobreño

Related words

• cúprico
• cuproso
• cuprífero
• Latin cuprum
• Catalan coure

Usage notes

The DLE has a second headword cobre, derived from cobra “yoke strap”, which is from Latin copŭla; it means two dried hake tied together and, in old use, a string of pack animals or of onions or garlic.^[4][26][23] Cobre is also a form of the verb cobrar.^[11] Common phrases are batir el cobre and batirse el cobre “to work very hard at something”.^[24][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 107
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cobre
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. cobre
5. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2078
7. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 1017
9. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 235
10. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
13. ^ 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. cobre
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 314
15. ^ 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. 472
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 207
17. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 400
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
20. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé
21. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 362
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
23. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 386
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
25. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. cobre
26. ^ 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. cobra