cruzada

Forms

cruzada f (plural cruzadas)^[1] Old Spanish texts write it cruzada, cruçada and crusada.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish cruz + -ada, after the cross that the soldiers wore on their breast as a badge.^[4][5] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of cruz, beside cruzar and cruzado.^[6][7] That noun is a semi-learned descendant of Latin crux (“cross; gallows; torment”).^[6] Only Spanish and Portuguese developed the Latin word in a semi-learned form, while the other Romance languages have popular outcomes.^[6]

Wiktionary compares Portuguese cruzada, Old Occitan crozata, French croisade and Italian crociata, and also Medieval Latin cruciāta.^[1] Nascentes takes the Portuguese word as the feminine of the adjective cruzado turned into a noun.^[8] The DHLF dates the French word to about 1460 and suggests that it may owe its suffix to the Occitan or to the Spanish word; it replaced older French names such as croisement and croiserie.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a charter of 1220 and to Berceo.^[6][7] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy) it means a crowd or troop: the mob that seized Christ is essa falsa cruzada “that false band”.^[3][10][11] The sense “crusade” is clear in Alfonso X's Setenario, which tells a man to give goods he cannot return to the crusades made against the enemies of the Faith.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word names both the military expedition against the infidels and the troops that went on it.^[12] By about 1400 it also meant the papal grant of indulgences to those who supported such a war, the sense of echar la cruzada in the Danza de la Muerte.^[10] Autoridades explains the Bula de la Santa Cruzada, which the pope granted to the kingdoms of Spain because of the war against the infidels, and quotes the laws on the officers of the Cruzada.^[13] The bull was preached in the Americas from the 1530s.^[14]

The Academy added the sense “crossroads”, a synonym of encrucijada, in 1817.^[15] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 records the figurative sense, a campaign to spread an idea or to fight a vice.^[16] Today the DLE gives “campaign for some end” as the last sense, and Moliner a struggle or series of efforts for a high purpose.^[4][17]

Timeline

• 1220 – first record, in a charter.^[6][7]
• 1236–1246 – Berceo calls the mob that seized Christ essa falsa cruzada (in an 18th-century copy).^[3][10]
• 1252–1270 – Alfonso X's Setenario speaks of crusades against the enemies of the Faith.^[3]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses cruçada for a crusading army.^[3][12]
• 1292 – a testament leaves five maravedís a la Cruçada.^[3]
• c. 1400 – the Danza de la Muerte uses it for the grant of indulgences.^[10]
• 1536 – first record in the Americas, a bull of the Santa Cruzada in Lima.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “crossroads”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy first derives it from cruz.^[5]
• 1917 – Alemany records the figurative sense “campaign”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A crusade: a military expedition against the infidels, especially to recover the Holy Places, proclaimed by the pope with indulgences for those who took part.^[4][1]
2. The troops that went on a crusade.^[4]
3. (history) The indulgences the pope granted to kings who kept troops to fight the Muslims, and to those who contributed to their upkeep.^[4]
4. The Council of the Crusade, the body that administered the bull.^[4][18]
5. A crossroads (encrucijada).^[4]
6. A campaign for some end: Los vecinos iniciaron una cruzada contra el ruido.^[4][17]

Related words

• cruz
• cruzar
• cruzado
• encrucijada
• French croisade

Usage notes

Bula de la cruzada or bula de la santa cruzada is the set name of the papal bull.^[4] Vox notes that the medieval expeditions are usually written with a capital, and gives a further sense, a war waged in defence of the Christian religion.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. cruzada
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cruzada
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. cruzada
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 309
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 253
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cruz
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. cruzada
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. croisade
10. ^ a b c d 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. 819
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 269
12. ^ 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. cruzada
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 667
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. cruzada
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 255
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 482
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cruzada
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 208
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cruzada