criollo

Forms

criollo (feminine criolla, masculine plural criollos, feminine plural criollas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese crioulo, a derivative of criar (“to raise, breed”): in Brazil the word meant first a slave born in the master's house, and a Black person born in the colonies as opposed to one brought by the slave trade, and later a white person born in the colonies.^[2][3][4][1] The Portuguese verb is the outcome of Latin creō (“to create, beget”).^[5] Spanish ⟨-ollo⟩ adapts Portuguese ⟨-oulo⟩ on the model of Spanish ⟨-illo⟩ beside Portuguese ⟨-elo⟩.^[3]

The suffix is the difficulty, as Schuchardt already noted in 1889.^[2] Corominas thinks it most likely that the Portuguese word is a diminutive of cria (“slave raised in the master's house”) with the Portuguese suffix ⟨-oulo⟩ of moçoula (“girl”) and lentejoula.^[2][3] Cornu, Nobiling and Leite de Vasconcelos explained it instead as an alteration of criadouro (“apt to be reared”), with the loss of the ⟨d⟩ in the speech of Africans and dissimilation of the second ⟨r⟩ to ⟨l⟩;^[6] Nascentes follows this view.^[2][6] Corominas finds it possible but rejects outright Brüch's reconstruction Vulgar Latin *creabulum, which would not explain a word born in the colonies.^[2]

Older writers gave other accounts.^[2][7] The Inca Garcilaso (1602) wrote that the name was invented by the Blacks, to tell those born in the Indies from those born in Guinea, and that the Spaniards took it from them.^[2][8] Autoridades called it a word invented by the Spanish conquerors of the Indies.^[7] Barcia lists both these views beside a derivation from criar.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boyd-Bowman's earliest record is a Puebla document of 1562 about a fourteen-year-old Black slave, criollo de la dicha provincia de Yucatán “born in the said province of Yucatán”.^[10] Corominas dates the word from José de Acosta (1590), who speaks of algunos criollos (como allá llaman a los nacidos de españoles en Indias) “some criollos, as they call over there those born of Spaniards in the Indies”.^[2][11] Portuguese records are later: Houaiss dates crioulo c. 1596, and the earliest text Corominas knew directly is of 1632.^[12][2]

Semantic evolution

The word applied at first both to the children of Africans and to those of Europeans born in the Americas, and in 1740 Juan and Ulloa still divided the Black population of Peru into criollos and bozales (newly arrived).^[2] Friederici notes that it was used of whites, of Africans and of animals born in the New World, but never of Indians.^[8] The Academy defined it in 1817 as the child of European parents born in America.^[13] Salvá noted in 1846 that the word sounded bad in America, where people preferred to be called Americans or by their country, and added the sense of native produce.^[14]

In the 19th and 20th centuries the adjective came to mean “national, home-grown”, of customs, food and produce, and in some countries “of inferior quality” compared with what is imported.^[15][16] It is also the term for a creole language.^[4][17]

Timeline

• 1562 – a Puebla document calls a Black slave born in Yucatán criollo.^[10]
• 1590 – José de Acosta uses it of Spaniards born in the Indies.^[11][2]
• c. 1596 – the first Portuguese record of crioulo.^[12]
• 1602 – the Inca Garcilaso says the word was invented by the Blacks.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades calls it a word of the Spanish conquerors.^[7]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as the child of Europeans born in America.^[13]
• 1889 – the first record of the derivative acriollarse.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: born in the former Spanish territories of America, or in some European colonies there, of European parents or ancestors.^[4]
2. (historical) Of a Black person: born in the Americas, as opposed to one brought from Africa as a slave.^[4][17]
3. (Latin America) Born in a Spanish American country and showing its typical qualities.^[4]
4. Native to or typical of a Spanish American country.^[4][18]
5. (Latin America) Of an animal or plant: of a local breed or variety, not crossed with a foreign one; of poultry, raised free.^[19]
6. Relating to a creole language.^[4]

Noun

1. A Creole person, especially a descendant of Europeans born in the Americas.^[4][1]
2. (linguistics) A creole: a mixed language that arises in former colonies and, unlike a pidgin, is passed from parents to children.^[4]
3. (feminine, Cuba) A popular song and dance in 6/8 time.^[4]

Word family

• acriollarse

Related words

• criar
• crío
• Portuguese crioulo

Usage notes

A la criolla means “in the local style”, and in much of Spanish America also “simply, without ceremony”.^[4][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 243
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. criollo
4. ^ 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. criollo
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. criollo
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. crioulo
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. criollo
8. ^ a b Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 219
9. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 1108
10. ^ 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. criollo
11. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. criollo
12. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. crioulo
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 253
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 312
15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 413
16. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 267
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. criollo
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. criollo
19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. criollo