coronel

Forms

coronel m (plural coroneles, feminine coronel or coronela, feminine plural coroneles or coronelas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian colonnello (“colonel”), first “column of soldiers”, a diminutive of colonna (“column”).^[2][3][4] The Italian word is recorded from the 15th century, for the commander of a column of soldiers.^[5] The DLE has it come through French colonel, and Wiktionary considers Middle French colonel the probable source, with Old Occitan coronel as an alternative.^[6][1] Wikcionario names the Middle French forms coronel and coronnel.^[7]

Bénaben explains the ⟨r⟩ as a dissimilation of the two /l/ sounds, and Wiktionary adds the influence of corona.^[4][1] French itself said couronnel in the 16th and early 17th centuries.^[8] The DHLF thinks this was probably not taken from Spanish, but the same change that gave mérancolie for mélancolie.^[8]

The Italian noun continues Latin columna (“column, pillar”), which Wiktionary takes as a collateral form of columen (“summit; pillar”).^[5][1] Its learned Spanish counterpart is columna.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word 1511, in the sense “commander of a regiment”.^[2] The CDH has the spelling Coronel from the 13th century, but only as a surname (Don Pedro Coronel of Aragon, 1273, María Fernández Coronel, 1309).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades defines the coronel as the officer commanding a regiment of cavalry or infantry, “what used to be called maestre de campo”.^[11] It quotes Mendoza's Guerra de Granada: pusolos debaxo de Coroneles “he put them under colonels”.^[11] It adds that in Spain the name was also given to those who led the companies sent by kingdoms, provinces or cities.^[11] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 notes that some colonels only held the rank.^[12] Domínguez in 1846 places the colonel above the comandante and below the brigadier.^[13] The first record from the Americas is from Chile in 1575.^[14]

In Cuba a coronel is a very large kite whose top is shaped like a crown with three tassels.^[15][16][6] In Colombia the word named the top of a kite, in Mexico a blackbird, and in El Salvador, jocularly, the turkey.^[17][15][18] In colloquial Cuban it was also a deceived husband, by allusion to coronado.^[19]

Timeline

• 1273 – Coronel as a surname in a charter of Alfonso X.^[10]
• 1511 – first record of the military title.^[2]
• 1575 – first record from the Americas, in Chile.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades equates the coronel with the older maestre de campo.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary defines the officer commanding a regiment.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first derives it from Italian colonnello.^[20]
• 1917 – Alemany records the Cuban sense “large kite”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. colonel: the officer commanding a regiment, the rank above teniente coronel.^[6][1][21]
2. (Cuba) A large kite.^[6][18]
3. (El Salvador) The turkey.^[6][18]

Related words

• columna
• Italian colonnello
• French colonel

Usage notes

The DLE lists separately a coronel “moulding that crowns an architectural member; heraldic crown”, from Old French coroner “of a crown”.^[6] Corominas records it from Diego de Valera (died 1487) and suggests Old Occitan coronel “door jamb”, a diminutive of Latin columna, whose sense was changed in Spain by corona.^[22] Pulgar's chronicle (c. 1484) forbids coroneles en los escudos de sus armas “crowns on the shields of their arms”.^[23] The feminine is coronela, which is also an adjective, as in bandera coronela.^[1][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. coronel
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 197
4. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. coronel
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. colónna
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. coronel
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. columna
10. ^ 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. coronel
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
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 244
13. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 472
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, p. s.v. coronel
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 400
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 460
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 260
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. coronel
19. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 155
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 296
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. coronel
22. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 199
23. ^ 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. 790
24. ^ 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. coronela