cubilete

Forms

cubilete m (plural cubiletes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gobelet (“drinking cup without foot or handle”), altered in Spanish under the influence of cubo and cuba.^[2][3] The DLE and Wiktionary derive it from the older Spanish form gubilete, reshaped after the word for “vat”.^[4][1] According to Corominas the ⟨i⟩ may be an attempt to render the French mute ⟨e⟩, or come from the chance likeness to cubil;^[2] Gracián still used the spelling ⟨govelete⟩ in 1657.^[2] He rejects the view of Diez and of the Academy that it is a diminutive of the word for “vat”, since ⟨-ilete⟩ is not a Spanish suffix.^[2] The forms Galician gobilete “small clay vessel with a handle” and, in northern Portugal, Portuguese covilhete “red clay vessel” are the same loan.^[2]

The French word is a derivative of Old Occitan gobel (“drinking vessel”), recorded in 1310.^[5] Wartburg traced it to Gaulish *gobbos (“mouth, beak”), comparing Irish gob; the DHLF notes that a cup has no spout, and mentions Guiraud's alternative, a Gallo-Romance base for “rounded, swollen”.^[2][5] Already in Middle French the word was used of the cups of the dice and conjuring games, as Rabelais shows.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juan del Encina's Cancionero (printed 1496) lists among a shepherd's goods los cubiletes de pez “the pitch cups”.^[6] The DCECH and the BDELC date the word from 1611, when Covarrubias described the small metal cup used for pastries, by conjurors and for throwing dice.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

In the Americas it is recorded from 1512, in Puerto Rico, for cups of wood and iron.^[8] The DCECH dates the drinking cup to Cervantes in 1613;^[2][9] Autoridades quotes him for tres cubiletes de vino and also records the cook's copper mould and the round pie made in it.^[2][9] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 had all the modern senses, including the horn cup for shaking dice in backgammon (chaquete), and the 1843 edition listed gubilete as an obsolete variant.^[10][2] From 1884 it derived the word from cubillo.^[11]

In the Americas the conjuror's cup gave the sense “intrigue, trick”, especially in politics, in Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico and the River Plate;^[12][13][14] Rodríguez in 1875 recorded cubiletear “to plot in secret” and cubiletero “plotter” in Chile.^[12][13][14] In Colombia, Central America, Panama and Venezuela it is a top hat or a bowler.^[15][14]

Timeline

• 1481–1496 – Juan del Encina mentions cubiletes de pez.^[6]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[8]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: the pastry mould, the conjuror's cup and the dice cup.^[7][2]
• 1613 – Cervantes uses it for a drinking cup.^[2][9]
• 1657 – Gracián writes govelete.^[2]
• 1709 – Palomino has cubiletero for the kitchen mould.^[2]
• 1843 – the Academy lists gubilete as obsolete.^[2]
• 1875 – cubilete “political intrigue” and cubiletear are recorded in Chile.^[13]
• 1917 – Alemany records the top hat of Colombia.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A copper or tin mould (molde), round and wider at the top than at the bottom, used by cooks and pastry cooks.^[4][1]
2. A cup of the same shape used by conjurors in sleight-of-hand tricks.^[4]
3. A dish of minced meat cooked in such a mould.^[4][1]
4. A pie of that shape filled with minced meat, manjar blanco and other things.^[4]
5. A dice cup: a narrow, deep cup, usually of horn or leather, for shaking dice: Agitó el cubilete y lanzó los dados.^[4][1]
6. (dated) A drinking cup of glass, silver or other material, wider at the top than at the bottom.^[4]
7. (Latin America) A top hat or a bowler hat.^[1][16][15]
8. (Chile, Peru, River Plate) An intrigue or trick, especially in politics.^[12][17]

Word family

• cubiletear
• cubiletero
• cubileteo

Related words

• gubilete
• cuba
• cubo
• French gobelet

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 262
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cubilete
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. cubilete
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gobelet
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cubilete
7. ^ 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. 539
8. ^ 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. cubilete
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 672
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 260
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 314
12. ^ a b c Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 422
13. ^ a b c Rodríguez, Zorobabel (1875), Diccionario de chilenismos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente, p. 17
14. ^ a b c d Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 488
15. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 273
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cubilete
17. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 133