cresta

Forms

cresta f (plural crestas)^[1] The Sephardic Jews of Morocco say crista, the form of Portuguese and Galician.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crista (“crest, comb of a cock”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas finds no example before 1490, but holds that the word has existed since the beginnings of the language; the CDH has it from Alfonso X on.^[2][5] The learned crista, a term of heraldry recorded from 1575, is its doublet.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese crista, Galician crista, Catalan cresta, French crête, Italian cresta and Romanian creastă.^[6][2][1]

De Vaan reconstructs *kristā and Proto-Indo-European *kris-th₂-, from the same stem *kris- (“crest, plume, hair”) as crīnis (“hair”) and crispus (“curly”).^[7] The OLD also connects it, more cautiously, with the word for hair.^[8] Wiktionary gives the root *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is in the second part of Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1275, in a copy of the early 14th century): a huge serpent, yellow as gold, tenie crestas en la cabesca, “had crests on its head”.^[5][9] In the fourth part, in a manuscript of 1280, dragons have crestas en las cabeças.^[10][5]

Semantic evolution

Already in the General Estoria the crest of a helmet is a cresta.^[5] The cock's comb was the central sense for the old dictionaries: Covarrubias in 1611 tells Pliny's story of the Roman who first served cocks' combs at a banquet, and Autoridades adds that birds such as the hoopoe and the peacock have a crest of feathers.^[11][12] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has the rocky summit of a mountain and the phrase alzar or levantar la cresta, “to grow proud”.^[13] Alemany in 1917 records the crest of a wave, absent from the Academy's edition of 1899.^[14][15][4]

More recent senses are the punk crest of stiffened hair and the phrase en la cresta de la ola, at the height of success.^[16][17][1] In Mexico picar la cresta means “to provoke”.^[18][19] Regional senses include “the beloved” in Colombia, “hat” in Mexico and “head” in Honduras and Bolivia; in Chile the word is a vulgar expletive.^[20][21][1]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – first record, in the General Estoria (part II, in an early 14th-century copy).^[5][9]
• 1280 – part IV of the General Estoria, in a manuscript of that year, has dragons with crestas.^[10]
• c. 1410 – first record of the adjective crestado, in the Libro de los gatos.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary, Corominas's first record.^[2][3][22]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin crista and Greek lophos.^[23]
• 1499 – the Celestina uses it for a cock's comb.^[22]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, cresta de gallo de Castilla, in Mexico City.^[24]
• 1578 – Ercilla uses the derivative crestón.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines the cock's comb.^[11]
• 1715 – first record of crestería.^[3]
• 1817 – the Academy records the mountain ridge and alzar la cresta.^[13]
• 1917 – Alemany records the crest of a wave.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The comb: the red fleshy growth on the head of the cock and some other birds.^[4][1]
2. A tuft of feathers on a bird's head; a copete.^[4][1]
3. A small ridge on some animals, neither fleshy nor feathered.^[4][17]
4. A jagged rocky ridge or summit of a mountain: Desde la cresta se veía todo el valle.^[4][1]
5. The crest of a wave, usually topped with foam.^[4][1]
6. A mohawk: a band of stiff, upright hair, often dyed.^[16][17][1]
7. (obsolete) The raised part of a helmet, the crestón.^[4][16]
8. (Mexico, colloquial) A hat;^[21] (Honduras, Bolivia) a person's head.^[21]
9. (Dominican Republic) The clitoris.^[25]

Word family

• crestería
• crestear
• descrestar
• crestado
• crestón
• encrestarse

Related words

• crista
• crin
• crespo
• gallocresta

Usage notes

Cresta de gallo names the plant also called gallocresta.^[4] Fixed phrases are dar a alguien en la cresta, “to humble someone”, and estar en la cresta de la ola, “to be at the top”.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 241
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cresta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cresta
5. ^ 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, p. s.v. cresta
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 2
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cresta
10. ^ 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), p. s.v. cresta
11. ^ 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. 530
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 656
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 252
14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 473
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 283
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cresta
17. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
18. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 267
19. ^ García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. cresta
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 412
21. ^ 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. cresta
22. ^ 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. 811
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 320
24. ^ 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. cresta
25. ^ 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. cresta