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cuero

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word cuero

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1158–1202 Fuero de Madrid, in a copy of the first half of the 13th century More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin corium
Ultimate origin
Latin corium
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin corium
French cuir
Spanish cuero
From the same root
French curée ← cuir

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkweɾo/, [ˈkwe.ɾo][1]

Forms

cuero m (plural cueros)[1] Old texts have coiro, coyro, cueyro and kueros beside cuero.[2] Coiro is the reading of manuscript O of the Libro de Alexandre.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corium (“skin of a man or an animal, hide”).[3][4][5][1] The same word is Portuguese couro, Galician coiro, Catalan cuir, French cuir and Italian cuoio.[6][7][8][1] Old Portuguese and Galician had coiro.[6][8] In all the Romance languages it tended to mean “tanned hide”; the older sense “skin in general” survived better in Spanish and Portuguese, but French kept it until the 17th century and Catalan until the 15th.[3]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kor-yo- (“torn off”), a derivative of a noun meaning “what is peeled off”, so “bark, skin”, from the root *(s)ker- (“to cut off”).[9][1] Latin cortex (“bark”) and carō (“flesh”) belong to the same root.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Madrid (between 1158 and 1202, in a copy of the first half of the 13th century) fines anyone who sells rabbits, meat or hide: Todo homine qui uendieret coneios, carne & cuero, pectet II morabetinos “Any man who sells rabbits, meat and hide shall pay two maravedís”.[10][2] The DEMel lists an earlier plural kueros in a Huesca charter of 1094.[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word meant the skin of an animal, the human skin and even the peel of fruit: Alfonso X's Lapidario has a stone that makes the skin of the face fine, and his General estoria speaks of the peel of fruit.[11][12] Covarrubias in 1611 describes the hides prepared for soles, shoes, gloves and chests.[13] The Academy's first dictionary adds the goatskin bag for wine or oil, a sense found in the Quijote, and the jocular use for a drunkard; the plural once meant hangings of tooled and gilded leather.[14][15]

En cueros “naked” is old: it is recorded in Mexico in 1532.[16][6] Modern Spanish uses cuero mainly for leather, cuero cabelludo for the scalp, and colloquially for the football.[5][17][18] In Latin America it has a range of slang senses, from an attractive person in Mexico and Central America to a prostitute in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.[5][1] Wiktionary takes the “attractive body” sense as probably a euphemism for cuerpo.[5][1]

Timeline

  • 1158–1202 – the Fuero de Madrid (in a 13th-century copy) uses cuero for hides.[10][2]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first hit known from a contemporary text.[10]
  • c. 1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, the DCECH's first record.[3][4]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for human skin.[11]
  • 1512 – first record in the Americas: a leather doublet in Puerto Rico.[16]
  • 1535 – the derivative cuera, a short leather jacket, is first recorded.[3][4]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin corium.[13]
  • 1884 – the Academy records cuero cabelludo “scalp”.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The skin or hide that covers an animal's flesh.[5][1]
  2. leather: hide that has been tanned and prepared for use: un cinturón de cuero negro.[5][1]
  3. A wineskin, a skin bag for liquids.[5][17]
  4. (colloquial, sports) The ball in football.[17][1]
  5. (colloquial, Colombia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico) An aged, ugly woman.[5]
  6. (Cuba) A percussion instrument.[5]
  7. (colloquial, Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, Peru) An attractive person.[5][1]
  8. (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) A prostitute.[5][1]
  9. (plural, obsolete) Hangings of tooled leather.[5]

Word family

  • cuera
  • encorar
  • encorecer
  • arrastracueros
  • descuerar
  • encuerar

Usage notes

En cueros and en cueros vivos mean “stark naked” and also “penniless”.[17] Cuero cabelludo is the scalp.[17][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cuero
  3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 274
  4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuero
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cuero
  6. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. corium
  7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 1093
  8. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1019
  9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ 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. cuero
  11. ^ 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. cuero
  12. ^ 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. 831
  13. ^ 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. 550
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. cuero
  15. ^ 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. 318
  16. ^ 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. cuero
  17. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuero
  18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cuero

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cuero.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/cuero. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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