condestable

Forms

condestable m or f by sense (plural condestables)^[1] Old Spanish has conestable from the 13th to the 14th century, and once comistable.^[2][3]

Etymology

Corominas explains it as borrowed from Old Catalan conestable, adapted and reshaped after conde.^[4] He prefers Catalan to Old French because the dignity was created in Castile for Alfonso of Aragon, Marquis of Villena, and because the Catalan word is found from about 1300; its French counterpart is older, but Catalan texts before the 14th century are few.^[4] The BDELC leaves the route open between Catalan and French, the DICCA-XV names Catalan, and Wiktionary takes it from Old French conestable, influenced by the word for “count”.^[5][6][1]

The source of all these is from Late Latin comes stabuli (“count of the stable”), the title of the officer in charge of the royal stables, found in a Council of Toledo and in the Theodosian Code.^[4][7] Corominas calls the change from the Latin phrase to the Catalan form poorly explained: perhaps a dissimilation of the labials in a learned *comestable, or a loss by dissimilation in a popular form with ⟨nd⟩.^[4][4] The DHLF explains the /n/ of the French form as dissimilation from the following /b/.^[8] The REW lists French connétable, Old Occitan conestable, Italian connestabile and Portuguese condestável with the Spanish word.^[9]

comes (“companion”) is a compound of com- with the root of eō (“to go”), that is “one who goes along”, and stabulum (“stable”) is the source of establo.^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), which calls Potiphar el Egypcio de Pharaon conestable, the Egyptian, Pharaoh's officer.^[3][2] The form with ⟨d⟩ is first found in the Crónica de Alfonso X (c. 1340–1350), where an army of seven thousand knights is sent to Navarre con el condestable.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries conestable appears in texts about foreign courts, such as the Otas de Roma and Juan Fernández de Heredia's chronicles of the Morea and the Orient.^[3] According to Mariana and Salazar de Mendoza, quoted by Corominas, the dignity was introduced in Castile in 1382; the word is then used by the Marquis of Santillana and as a title of Álvaro de Luna.^[4] Nebrija rendered it with Latin comestabilis and compared the Roman primipilus.^[11][6]

Covarrubias (1611) compared it with the Roman magister equitum and called it a title of a grandee in Castile, while in France the constable held the highest power in war after the king.^[12] Autoridades (1729) traced the office to the master of the horse of the eastern imperial household.^[13] By 1884 the Academy also recorded the naval sense, a man acting as sergeant in the marine artillery.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – conestable in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[3][2]
• c. 1340–1350 – condestable in the Crónica de Alfonso X.^[3]
• 1382 – the dignity is created in Castile, according to Mariana and Salazar de Mendoza.^[4]
• early 15th century – the date the BDELC gives for the word.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin comestabilis.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the office in Castile and France.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the naval artillery sense.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) In the Middle Ages, the holder of the highest military dignity, commander of the army; a constable.^[7][15][1]
2. (nautical) A man who acts as sergeant in the marine artillery brigades.^[7][15]

Word family

• condestablía
• condestablesa

Related words

• conde
• establo
• Late Latin comes stabuli
• French connétable

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. condestable
3. ^ 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. condestable
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. 2, 170
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conde
6. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. condestable
7. ^ a b c 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. condestable
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. connétable
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2075a
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
12. ^ 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. 1, 499
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 487
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos