coraje

Forms

coraje m (plural corajes)^[1] Old Spanish wrote corage.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French corages (“courage”), the Old French nominative of corage, according to the DCECH, the DLE and Moliner.^[4][5][6] Alonso and García de Diego give Old Occitan coratge as the source instead, and Wiktionary allows either.^[7][8][1] The French and Occitan words go back to Vulgar Latin *corāticum, formed with the suffix -āticum on cor (“heart”).^[1][9] The same formation is Catalan coratge, Italian coraggio and French courage.^[1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”), with κῆρ (kêr) and Old English heorte as cognates.^[1][10] The inherited Spanish word is corazón, under which Corominas treats this word.^[4] Autoridades explained it as a compound of ⟨cor⟩ and the verb ⟨agito⟩.^[11] Baralt in 1855 made it ⟨cor⟩ with ⟨ago⟩, and the Academy in 1899 derived it from Medieval Latin coragium.^{[12][13][11][12][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a 15th-century copy): “Embïó luego Métades al rey de grant coraje” “Metades then sent to the king of great spirit”.^[14] Alonso gives the sense “mind, disposition” for the Alexandre, which also has the derivative corajoso “brave”.^[7][4] The Estoria de España of Alfonso X (1270–1284) has both “valour” (su fuerte corage) and “anger” (cresciol corage).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DCECH starts from Juan Ruiz (1330–1343), whose plural corages means fits of anger.^[4] Corominas calls “anger” the classical sense, found in Cervantes, Mateo Alemán and Ambrosio de Morales (1574), and “valour” the etymological one, in Hernán Núñez (1499) and in 17th-century writers, still very much alive in the Americas.^[4] The BDELC dates “anger” about 1330 and “valour” about 1440.^[15] Nebrija's corage meant despair, with morir de corage.^[4][16] In the Americas a chronicler wrote in 1515 that a captured cacique died “de mal tratado i de coraje”.^[17]

Autoridades put “anger” first and “valour” second, but from 1843 the Academy put “valour” first.^[11][18] Baralt (1855) argued that only “anger” was good Spanish usage and that “valour” followed the French.^[12] In colloquial Spain dar coraje means “to make one furious”, for something that could have been avoided.^[6] In Puerto Rico the word means anger.^[19]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in a 15th-century copy).^[14]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for valour and for anger.^[3]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz has corages “fits of anger”, the first record in the DCECH.^[4][15]
• 1300s – first record of corajudo.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records morir de corage.^[16]
• 1515 – the first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives “anger” as the first sense.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy puts “valour” first.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. courage: bold determination and effort of the spirit, bravery: Hace falta coraje para decir la verdad.^[5][1]
2. anger, irritation, rage: Me da coraje haber perdido el tren.^[5][1][6]

Word family

• corajudo
• corajina
• encorajinar

Related words

• corazón
• cordial
• French courage
• Catalan coratge

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. coraje
3. ^ 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. coraje
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, 189
5. ^ 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. coraje
6. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. coraje
7. ^ 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, p. 785
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. coraje
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. coraje
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cor
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 588
12. ^ a b c Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 180
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 269
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. coraje
15. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. corazón
16. ^ 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. coraje
17. ^ 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. coraje
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 196
19. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. coraje