comadre

Forms

comadre f (plural comadres)^[1] One manuscript of Juan Ruiz has the variant camadre.^[2] In Murcia the forms comaere and comaire are used.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin commāter (“godmother”), a compound of com- (“together, with”) and māter (“mother”).^[4][5][1] In Medieval Latin the word named the godmother in her relation to the father or the godfather, or the mother in her relation to the godfather.^[6]

It is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese comadre, Catalan comare, French commère, Italian comare and Sardinian comare.^[4][7][1] Romanian has cumătră from Slavic instead.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Estoria de España (c. 1270, in a manuscript of the late 13th century) records a law that a man or woman que con su comadre o con su compadre casasse “who married their comadre or compadre” must separate: the word names a relation created by baptism.^[8][9] The Calila e Dimna (1251, in a much later copy) uses it for a woman's close friend: the tortoise's wife quexóse a una su comadre.^[8] Corominas's first record is Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343).^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

In Juan Ruiz the lion calls the fox comadre, and the word also means an old gossip.^[8][2] Covarrubias (1611) gives the sense “midwife”, the women who receive the child from the godfather at the font, the woman who attends a bride, and neighbours on familiar terms; he records jueves de comadres, the Thursday before Shrove Tuesday when women friends met for a meal, and the proverb Riñen las comadres, y dizense las verdades “when the gossips quarrel, the truths come out”.^[11] Autoridades (1729) says the literal “joint mother” is no longer used and that the neighbourly sense is commoner in Andalusia than in Castile.^[12]

The Academy's dictionary of 1884 adds “go-between” (alcahueta).^[13] The midwife is now mostly a comadrona, a word the Academy admitted in 1925.^[4] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1542 in Panama and 1547 in Mexico City, there for a midwife.^[14] In Mexican popular speech the plural means a woman's breasts, in Guatemala and Panama it is a chamber pot, and in Bolivia comadres is a festival on the Thursday before Carnival.^[15] In the Dominican Republic it is a familiar form of address to a woman.^[16]

Timeline

• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna, in a copy of the late 14th or early 15th century, uses it for a woman's friend.^[8][17]
• c. 1270 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for the godmother relation.^[8][9]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor, Corominas's first record.^[4][10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as madre con otra “mother together with another”, Latin commater.^[18]
• 1542 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records jueves de comadres and the proverb Riñen las comadres, y dizense las verdades.^[11]
• 1729 – Autoridades records “midwife”, “godmother” and “neighbour”.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary admits comadrón “man-midwife” as a new word.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “go-between”.^[13]
• 1925 – comadrona “midwife” enters the Academy's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A midwife, especially one without formal training.^[5][1]
2. The godmother of someone's child or godchild, in relation to that person.^[5][1]
3. The mother of someone's godchild, in relation to the godparent.^[5][1]
4. (colloquial) A go-between in love affairs, an alcahueta.^[5][1]
5. (colloquial) A neighbour and close female friend.^[5]
6. (colloquial, often plural) A woman fond of gossip: Las comadres del barrio no hablaban de otra cosa.^[19][20][1]
7. (Mexico, plural, popular) A woman's breasts.^[15]

Word family

• comadreja
• comadrona
• comadrón
• comadrazgo
• comadrear
• comadreo
• comadrero

Related words

• madre
• compadre
• madrina

Usage notes

Jueves de comadres is the Thursday before Carnival, a women's feast in parts of Spain and in Bolivia.^{[5][11][15][21]} The corresponding masculine is compadre.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 123
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
4. ^ 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. 3, 754
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. comadre
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b 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)
10. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. madre
11. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 488
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 424
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
16. ^ 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. comadre
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 315
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
21. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu