ducado

Forms

ducado m (plural ducados)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Spanish duque, according to the Academy's 2001 dictionary and Vox, and Corominas lists it among the derivatives of that word, dating it to about 1260.^[2][3][4] The noun for “duke” is in turn from Old French duc, which is Latin dux (“leader, guide”), a title given in the late Roman Empire to high civil and military officers of the provinces.^[4][5] Corominas dates the Spanish word for “duke” only to about 1295, later than the derivative itself.^[4] Wiktionary instead takes the word as a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ducātus, formed from the Latin noun with the suffix -ātus;^[1] in Latin it meant military command or leadership.^[6]

In the sense “gold coin” it is borrowed from Italian ducato, which Corominas dates to 1181 and places in the 15th century in Spanish.^[4][3] Vox explains the name by the Italian dukes, who were the first to strike such coins;^[3] the DHLF describes it as a ducal coin bearing a duke's image, and dates the Medieval Latin coin name to 1181 and the Italian one to before 1347.^[7] The same Medieval Latin noun gave French duché, and the Italian coin name gave ducat.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy) it means command: after Moses' death Joshua held the ducado in his place and led the people into the land.^[8] The first record without a later copy, in Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284), has the territorial sense, the ducado of Cantabria.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “command of men at war” was later marked as obsolete by the Academy, from 1843 on.^[9][10] The territorial sense and the dignity of a duke have lasted to the present.^[10]

The coin is recorded from 1322, in a privilege of Alfonso XI for Murcia.^[11] Nebrija about 1495 distinguished the gold ducado from the ducado as a duke's land.^[12][13] Covarrubias in 1611 thought the coin was named after great dukes who had the right to mint it, and quoted Polydore Vergil's view that it came from the Duchy of Rome.^[14] In the Americas the ducat was a common unit from the first years: in Cuba in 1521 it was worth 375 maravedís.^[15] After the coin itself had gone, the ducado survived as a money of account of 375 maravedís, eleven reales and one maravedí.^[9][10] The Academy's 1899 edition says the gold coin was used in Spain until the end of the 16th century.^[16]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy) uses it for command.^[8]
• c. 1260 – Corominas's date of first record.^[4]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España speaks of the ducado of Cantabria.^[8]
• 1322 – the first record of the coin, in a privilege of Alfonso XI for Murcia.^[11]
• c. 1440 – Corominas's date for the coin sense.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija lists the gold coin and the duke's territory.^[12]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico, as a sum of money.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the coin's name.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy marks the sense “command of troops” as obsolete.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. dukedom: the title or rank of a duque.^[10][1]
2. The territory over which a duke held the title or jurisdiction: Heredó el ducado de su abuelo.^[10]
3. A duchy, a state ruled by a duke.^[10][1]
4. (historical) A ducat, a gold coin of varying value used in Spain until the end of the 16th century.^[10]
5. (historical) A money of account worth eleven reales of vellón, raised by half by a decree of 1680 and later brought back to its first value.^[10]
6. (historical) A gold coin of Austria-Hungary.^[10]
7. (obsolete) Command of troops.^[10]

Related words

• duque
• ducal
• Latin dux

Usage notes

Ducado de oro was another name for the excelente de la granada, the gold coin of the Catholic Monarchs, and ducados de la estampa were the gold ducats paid for the issue of papal bulls.^[10][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ducado
3. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ducado
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. duque
5. ^ 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. duque
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 237
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ducat
8. ^ 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. ducado
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 273
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ducado
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ducado
12. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. ducado
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 338
14. ^ 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. 695
15. ^ 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. ducado
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 372
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 343