duque

Forms

duque m (plural duques, feminine duquesa, feminine plural duquesas)^[1] Old Spanish first wrote the word duc, the French form;^[2] duque is recorded from about 1295.^[3][2] The feminine is duquesa, recorded in the Gran Conquista de Ultramar of about 1295.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French duc (“duke”).^[3][5][6][1] The Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish gives Old Occitan duc as the source instead.^[7] The Old French word is itself from Latin dux (“leader, guide”), the title given in the Late Roman Empire to high military and civil officials of the provinces.^[3][8][9] The feminine duquesa follows duchesse, a derivative of the French noun.^[5]

The Latin noun is formed from dūcō (“to lead”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *deuk- (“to draw”).^[10][11] The same Latin word gave Italian duca, French duc and, through Venetian, Italian doge.^[12][1] Spanish has the learned doublet dux beside it.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel lists the Liber Regum (1194–1211) as the earliest text with the word.^[2] The French form duc is recorded from 1220, and duque from about 1295.^[3] In Alfonso X's histories (1270–1284) the word names the general of an army and the holder of the title: the Estoria de España has a duc of King Theoderic, the General estoria the duques who ruled Israel.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “commander of an army”, matches the Late Latin title;^[14][13] Alfonso X's Partidas, as Covarrubias quotes them, explain the word as “leader and guide of an army” whose office was granted by the emperor.^[14][13] Autoridades defines the duke as the holder of the dignity that carried the honour of Grandee of Spain, and records a second, unrelated-looking sense: a fold that women made in their mantle by pinning it to the hair.^[15] The Academy kept “general of an army” and “military and political governor of a province” as old senses; the DLE now marks both as disused and defines the title as the highest rank of nobility, just above marquis.^[5][16] Domínguez in 1846 recorded the phrase vivir como un duque “to live like a duke”, i.e. in comfort.^[17] In Mexico, Cuba and Bolivia duque is the number two in some games.^[18]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum, the earliest text DEMel lists for the word.^[2]
• 1220 – the BDELC's first date, for the French form duc.^[3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses duc for an army commander.^[13]
• c. 1295 – the form duque is recorded; the Gran Conquista de Ultramar has the feminine duquesa.^[3][4]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses duque in the Libro de buen amor.^[7]
• 1435 – the BDELC's date for duquesa.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin dux for duque.^[19]
• 1549 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[20]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the sense “fold of a woman's mantle”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. dux, ducis” and marks the military senses as old.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A duke (feminine duquesa, a duchess): a person holding the highest title of nobility, above marqués.^[5][1]
2. The consort of a duke or duchess.^[5]
3. (colloquial, historical) A fold that women made in their mantle by pinning it to their hair and turning back the front part.^[5][15]
4. (obsolete) The general of an army; the military and political governor of a province.^[5]
5. (Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia) The number two in some games.^[18]

Word family

• duquesa
• archiduque
• archiduquesa
• ducado

Related words

• dux
• ducal
• French duc

Usage notes

Duque de alba is a nautical term for a cluster of piles driven into the sea bed in a harbour and used as a mooring post.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. duque
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. duque
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. duquesa
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. duque
7. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 201
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. duque
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. duc
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dux
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2810
13. ^ a b c d 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. duque
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. 1, 698
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 351
16. ^ 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. 403
17. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 649
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. duque
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 339
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. duque