droga

Forms

droga f (plural drogas)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas calls it an international word of obscure history, which seems to have reached Castilian from the north, probably from France.^[2] In the DLE and Vox it is borrowed from French drogue, and Wiktionary traces the French word to drogue and on to Middle Dutch droge (“dry”).^[3][4][1] The French word is first recorded as drocque in 1462.^[5]

Its source is disputed.^[5] The DHLF names two likely explanations: Middle Dutch droge vate (“dry barrels”), with the adjective standing for the dried goods in them, or an Arabic word for “chaff”;^[5][6] Guiraud derived it instead from Latin dērogō (“to diminish the value of”).^[5][6] Corominas thought the earliest sense might be “thing of poor quality”, from the Celtic word for “bad” (Breton droug, Welsh drwg, Irish droch), applied to chemicals because of their bad taste and to goods from overseas because of popular distrust of them.^[2] The DLE keeps the Celtic origin as possible.^[3]

Corriente instead derived it from an Andalusian Arabic and Romance hybrid *ḥaṭrúka (“trifle; charlatanry”), from an Arabic root with a Romance pejorative suffix, and the Academy followed him in its 2001 edition, as Moliner does.^{[7][8][9][10]} The current DLE has returned to the French etymology.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from the end of the 15th century, with the sense “thing of poor quality”.^[2] The first hits in the CDH are from the 16th century, all in the sense of a spice or a medicinal substance: in 1527 Hernán Cortés instructs Saavedra to find out where in the Moluccas there is more especería y otras drogas “spices and other drugs”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century droga was the name of spices and substances used in medicine and trade: a Cortes petition of 1551 lists drogas with wax, leather and silk among goods from Barbary.^[11] Autoridades defines it as any kind of spice or aromatic, such as incense, gums or benzoin, and also products such as manna, jalap, rhubarb, vermilion and indigo; figuratively it was a lie or a cunning pretext.^[12] The Academy's 1884 edition derived it from Anglo-Saxon and added the senses “trick” and “annoying thing”.^[13]

From the 17th century droga meant “debt” in the Canaries, and the sense is recorded in Mexico, Peru and Chile, where endrogarse is to fall into debt.^{[14][15][16][17][3]} Bénaben dates the usual sense “narcotic” from the beginning of the 20th century, and Vox notes that the word has recently narrowed to it.^[6][4] In Uruguay a droga is a boring or poor thing, and Puerto Rican students use it for a crib sheet.^[3][18][19]

Timeline

• late 15th century – first record, according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1527 – Hernán Cortés: especería y otras drogas.^[11]
• 1528 – the first record in the Americas, at Santo Domingo: drogas provechosas.^[20]
• 1607 – first record of droguero.^[2]
• 1616 – first record of droguista.^[2]
• 1678 – Canary Islands: an estate that nunca saldrá de drogas “will never get out of debt”.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a spice or aromatic and, figuratively, a lie.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives an Anglo-Saxon etymology and the senses “trick” and “nuisance”.^[13]
• 2001 – the Academy's 22nd edition derives it from Andalusian Arabic.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mineral, vegetable or animal substance used in medicine, industry or the fine arts.^[3]
2. A drug: a substance with a stimulant, depressant, narcotic or hallucinogenic effect: la lucha contra la droga.^[3][1]
3. An obsessive activity or hobby: Para él, el ajedrez es una droga.^[3]
4. A medicine, a medicamento.^[3]
5. (Canary Islands, Mexico) A debt, sometimes one the debtor does not mean to pay.^[3][1][21]
6. (Uruguay) A boring, tedious or poor-quality thing.^[3][18]
7. (obsolete) A lie, trick or deceit.^[3][12]

Word family

• droguero
• droguista
• antidroga
• drogar
• endrogar
• droguería
• drogadicto

Related words

• French drogue

Usage notes

Droga blanda is a drug that is not addictive or only slightly so, and droga de diseño a drug made by small chemical changes to another.^[3] In Mexico hacer droga is to leave a debt unpaid.^[15][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. droga
3. ^ 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. droga
4. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. droga
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. droga
7. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 302
8. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. droga
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. droga
10. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. droga
11. ^ 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. droga
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, 343
13. ^ 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. 401
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. droga
15. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. droga
16. ^ Arona, Juan de [Pedro Paz Soldán y Unanue] (1883), Diccionario de peruanismos, Lima: J. Francisco Solís, p. 190
17. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 183
18. ^ 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. droga
19. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. droga
20. ^ 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. droga
21. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. droga
22. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 373