correa

Forms

correa f (plural correas)^[1] Old Spanish and Aragonese texts also write correya.^[2][3][4] Asturian has correcha;^[2] Navarrese corregel and corregil are derivatives.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corrigia (“shoelace; thong”).^[5][6][7][1] Old Castilian and Aragonese texts also have the form correya.^[2][3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese correia, Asturian correcha, Catalan corretja, French courroie and Italian correggia.^[2][8][9][1]

The Latin word named a thong for fastening shoes, attested from Varro, and the OLD thinks it is not connected with corrigō (“to straighten”), from which Wiktionary derives it.^[10][1][11] De Vaan reconstructs *kom-rig-jo- (“tying together”), from *Hriǵ-(i)o- (“stretching”), and calls it the only Latin survivor of a group of compound verbs meaning “to stretch, bind” that Celtic keeps, such as Old Irish con·rig (“to tie together”).^[11] Corominas and the DHLF add that most scholars take the Latin word to be a loan from Gaulish, given how widespread the family is in Celtic.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): the apostles saw Saint Mary's body taken up to heaven, e Sancto Tomas ovo dent la correa della, “and Saint Thomas had her belt from it”.^[4] Corominas dates the word from Berceo, whose Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1236) uses it of a lash: sé que los mis costados sovarán la correa, “I know the strap will beat my sides”.^[5][12][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word named a leather strap, a belt and a rein, and the straps of a sword or of the jesses of hawks.^[13][4] Covarrubias in 1611 explained it as the long strip of leather used to gird the body or tie a shoe, and recorded tener correa for one who bends without breaking, like a courtier, and hacer correa for a liquid that thickens.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades derived it from Latin corrigia and quoted the price lists of 1680 for belts.^[15]

By 1817 the Academy listed the stretch of honey, syrup or a green branch as correa, and the phrases besar la correa “to humble oneself by force” and tener correa “to take jokes without anger”.^[16] The 1899 edition added the timber of a roof (purlin) and the leather-strip duster.^[17] With machinery came correa de transmisión, the belt that turns one pulley from another.^[7] In Peru and the Antilles correa is any belt, and in Mexico and Central America it also names a bird.^[18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has la correa of Saint Mary.^[4]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses it for a lash, the DCECH's first record.^[5][4]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón speak of cutting la correa de la espada.^[4]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor has the form correya.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin corrigia and cestus.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records tener correa for one who bends without breaking.^[14]
• 1729 – correaje first recorded, in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[6]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the building sense, a purlin.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strap of leather or other material used to tie, gird or hang something.^[7][1]
2. A belt, especially a leather one that holds up trousers.^[7][21]
3. A leather belt with a hanging strip, worn with some religious habits.^[7]
4. A pair of straps with a clasp that hold an object in place: Se le rompió la correa del reloj.^[7]
5. A leash for a dog.^[1]
6. The stretchiness of something sticky or pliant, as honey or a green branch.^[7][22]
7. (colloquial) patience, the capacity to put up with work, jokes or teasing: Ese chico tiene mucha correa.^[7]
8. (architecture) A purlin, one of the horizontal timbers laid on the rafters of a roof truss.^[7]
9. (in the plural) A duster of thin leather strips on a handle.^[7]

Word family

• correaje
• correhuela
• correoso
• correón

Related words

• Latin corrigia
• Portuguese correia
• French courroie

Usage notes

Correa de transmisión is a drive belt, and correa de distribución the timing belt of an engine.^[7][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1916
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. correa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. correa
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 206
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. correa
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. correa
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. corretja
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. courroie
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. corrigia
11. ^ a b 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. corrigia
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 259
13. ^ 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. 791
14. ^ 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. 521
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 606
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 244
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 274
18. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 260
19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 301
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 319
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. correa
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. correa