dorado

Forms

dorado (feminine dorada, masculine plural dorados, feminine plural doradas)^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Spanish dorar (“to gild”).^[2][3][4] The verb is from Late Latin deaurō (“to gild”), formed with dē- on aurō (“to gild”), a verb made from aurum (“gold”).^[1][5][6] Wiktionary takes the Spanish adjective straight from the Late Latin participle deaurātus instead.^[1] Corominas finds the participle in the Cid, long before the infinitive, which he dates to 1534 in the DCECH and to 1495 in the BDELC.^[6][7]

The verb is shared by the western Romance languages: Portuguese dourar, Catalan daurar, French dorer and Italian dorare.^[6][1]

Wiktionary traces the Latin word for gold to Proto-Indo-European *h₂éws-o-m, from a root *h₂ews- (“to dawn, become light”), while de Vaan reconstructs a reduplicated *h₂é-h₂us-o- (“glow”); its closest cognates are Baltic, such as Lithuanian áuksas (“gold”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has the participle in the sense “gilded”: los guadamecís vermejos e los clavos bien dorados “the red leather hangings and the well-gilded nails”.^[9][6][7] The Razón de amor (first half of the 13th century) has un cascavielo dorado, a gilded little bell tied to a bird's foot.^[10][9] In Alfonso X's Lapidario it already means simply “gold-coloured”, of a stone.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Until the 19th century the dictionaries treated the word as the participle of dorar: Terreros and the Academy's edition of 1817 give no other definition.^[12][13][14] Autoridades, however, already recorded siglos dorados “golden ages” for the first times of the world, with a quotation from Góngora, and a southern constellation called the Dorado.^[12] The Academy's edition of 1843 defines the adjective “of the colour of gold”, the sea fish, and the gilding of a work.^[15] The figurative sense “splendid, happy” enters with Alemany's dictionary of 1917, which also records the Cuban use for a horse of a reddish, honey-like colour.^[16][17]

As a noun the word names fish with golden glints, and Oviedo lists doradas among the sea fish of the Indies in 1526, and a 1548 account from Santo Domingo describes dorados swimming beside the ship.^[18][19] In the Río de la Plata basin the dorado is a large river fish, called pirayú in Guarani.^[20][21] In Mexico, los Dorados were the soldiers of Pancho Villa's escort in the revolution of 1913–1915.^[22] English borrowed the fish name dorado about 1600.^[23]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid speaks of nails bien dorados.^[9][6]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultramar has a finite form of the verb, dorola “gilded it”.^[10][9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses piedra dorada for a gold-coloured stone.^[11]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz, Libro de buen amor.^[24][6]
• 1526 – Oviedo's Sumario names the fish doradas among those of the Indies.^[18]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “gilt”, Latin deauratus.^[25]
• c. 1600 – English takes over the fish name dorado.^[23]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records siglos dorados and the constellation Dorado.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy defines the adjective “of the colour of gold” and the sea fish.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin deauratus.^[26]
• 1917 – Alemany adds the senses “splendid, happy” and the Cuban horse colour.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the colour of gold, or like it; also used as a noun for that colour: Llevaba un vestido dorado.^[2][1]
2. Gilded, covered with a thin layer of gold or of something like it.^[27][2]
3. (figurative) Splendid, happy; of a period, at its height: la edad dorada.^[2][28]
4. (Cuba) Of a horse: honey-coloured.^[2][29]

Noun

1. (zoology) The dolphinfish or mahi-mahi, a brightly coloured edible sea fish with golden glints; in South America also a large river fish of the Río de la Plata basin.^[2][30][21]
2. Gilding: the act and result of gilding something.^[2][28]
3. (in the plural) Gilt or brass fittings and ornaments: Pulió los dorados de la cómoda.^[2]
4. (Mexico, historical) A soldier of Pancho Villa's escort.^[22]

Related words

• dorar
• oro
• dorada
• áureo
• Latin aurum
• English dorado

Usage notes

The feminine dorada is also the name of another fish, the gilthead bream, which Corominas derives from Latin aurata influenced by dorar.^[6][7]

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 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. dorado
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
4. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. dorado
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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. 4, 303
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oro
8. ^ 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 d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. dorar
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
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. dorado
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 338
13. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 702
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 336
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 272
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 616
17. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 132
18. ^ 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. dorado
19. ^ 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. dorado
20. ^ Segovia, Lisandro (1911), Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos, Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, p. 495
21. ^ 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. dorado
22. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 464
23. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
24. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 199
25. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 122
26. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 400
27. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. dorado
28. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dorado
29. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 372
30. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org