cuba

Forms

cuba f (plural cubas)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote cuua.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cuba, inherited from Latin cūpa (“cask, tub, vat”).^[3][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Portuguese cuba, Galician cuba, Catalan cuba, Occitan cuba, French cuve and Italian cupo (“hollow, deep”).^[3][6][7] Its variant cuppa gave copa, so the two Spanish words are doublets.^[3][1]

Cubo “bucket” is a derivative, from the Late Latin masculine cupus that Isidore names as a vessel for water or wine; old buckets were made of staves and hoops like casks.^[3][4]

The Latin word has been compared with कूप (kū́pa, “pit, hole”), κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”) and húfr (“ship's hull”).^[8] De Vaan thinks it probably a non-Indo-European loanword that passed between many languages, which would explain the varying length of its vowel;^[8][1] Wiktionary derives it from *kewp- (“a hollow”), perhaps of substrate origin.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1092 in Oelschläger's list.^[3][4] The earliest Spanish text in the CDH is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where the emperor has Saint John put en una cuba d'olio firvient “in a cask of boiling oil”.^[9] In the Razón de amor (c. 1205–1250) the wine boasts that it is always kept en buenas cubas.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always meant a large wooden vessel of staves and hoops for wine and other liquids.^[10][11] Covarrubias in 1611 already applies it to a big-bellied heavy drinker, and the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes the proverb cada cuba huele al vino que tiene “every cask smells of the wine it holds”, that is, deeds show a person's nature.^[10][11] The colloquial estar como una cuba “to be very drunk” comes from this.^[5][12]

Modern technology has given the word new uses: the shaft of a blast furnace, the float chamber of a carburettor, and a tanker lorry, as in camión cuba.^[5][13] In Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia and Peru cuba is a rum and cola, and in Colombia and western Venezuela the youngest child of a family.^[14]

The name of the island of Cuba has a separate source: Wiktionary takes it most likely from a Taíno word.^[1]

Timeline

• 1092 – the first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of wine kept en cuba o en tinaia.^[15]
• 1293 – the derivative cubo is first recorded, then still meaning “cask”.^[3]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor.^[16]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls a big-bellied drinker una cuba.^[10]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes cada cuba huele al vino que tiene.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cask, barrel or vat of wooden staves held by hoops, or nowadays of sheet metal, for wine, oil, water and other liquids.^[5][1]
2. The liquid a cask holds: una cuba de mosto.^[5]
3. (colloquial) A pot-bellied person.^[5]
4. (colloquial) A heavy drinker;^[5][12] estar como una cuba, to be very drunk.^[5][12]
5. (engineering) The shaft of a blast furnace, between the belly and the throat.^[5]
6. (mechanics) The float chamber of a carburettor.^[5]
7. A tank for carrying liquids on a vehicle, or the vehicle itself: camión cuba.^[13]
8. (Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia, Peru) A drink of rum and cola.^[14]

Word family

• cubo
• cubero
• cubeta
• cubería
• encubar
• cubeto

Related words

• copa
• Latin cūpa
• French cuve

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cuba
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 261
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuba
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cuba
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2041
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cūpa
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cuba
10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 538
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 671
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuba
13. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cuba
14. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cuba
15. ^ 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. cuba
16. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 155
17. ^ 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. cuba