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espada

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word espada

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
968 a Latin-Romance document of the Becerro Gótico de Valpuesta, spelt espata More words from the 10th century
Inherited from
Latin spatha
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek σπάθη
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē)
Latin spatha
Italian spada
Spanish espada
The word's journey
From the same root
English spade ← σπάθη
Latin spatula ← spatha

Pronunciation

  • /esˈpada/, [esˈpa.ð̞a][1]

Forms

espada f (plural espadas)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spatha (“broad, long sword; weaver's batten, spatula”); Old Spanish espada has the same form.[2][3][1] Latin had borrowed the word from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “any broad blade, of wood or metal”).[3][4][1] Wiktionary names the learned espata as its doublet.[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese espada, Galician espada, Asturian espada, Catalan espasa, Occitan espasa, French épée and Italian spada;[5][6] Aromanian spată means “sword”, while Romanian spată means “shoulder blade”.[5][6] García de Diego also lists Basque ezpata, Aragonese espata, the name of a part of the plough in the Pyrenees, and Mozarabic expata “steering oar”.[6] Coromines derives the Catalan and Old Occitan forms with -s-, and probably the Italian one, from a Vulgar Latin variant whose consonant imitated the fricative of Hellenistic Greek.[7]

Beekes lists many flat, oblong things called by the Greek word: the weaver's batten, a sword blade, the blade of an oar, a spatula, the stalk of a palm leaf.[8] Wiktionary takes it from Proto-Hellenic *spátʰā, perhaps from a PIE compound of Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- (“to draw”), and compares Proto-Germanic *spadô; the DHLF likewise compares the Germanic names of the spade, such as German Spaten.[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE finds the word first in 968, spelt espata, in a Latin-Romance document of the Becerro Gótico de Valpuesta by which Vermudo confirms to abbot Álvaro a heifer, a sword and four measures of grain.[10] Corominas dates it 1090.[2] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it often, as in en buen ora cinxiestes espada “in a good hour you girded on a sword”.[11][12] Menéndez Pidal notes that the swords of the 11th and 12th centuries had no sharp point, which was useless against the mail shirt, and were broad, made for cutting through the mail.[12]

Semantic evolution

Latin spatha at first named a flat tool for stirring mixtures, then a broad-bladed sword;[4][2] Spanish kept only the weapon.[4][2] In Alfonso X's Bible the word also stands for war itself, beside plague and hunger.[13] Covarrubias in 1611 called the sword the common weapon that men wear girded, for defence and as a sign that they are men, and the symbol of justice and power.[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) records the ace of the suit of espadas in the Spanish deck and the swordfish.[15] The sense “a person skilled with the sword” is in the Academy's dictionary of 1817, and Domínguez in 1846 extended it to anyone expert in something, using it as a masculine.[16][17] Gaspar y Roig recorded the bullfighter who kills the bull, and the Academy had this sense in 1884; it is masculine (el espada).[18][19][20] In fencing espada is the épée and its discipline.[3]

In the criminal slang of Spain and Argentina the word means a lock-pick or skeleton key, and in Puerto Rico a long tail feather of a fighting cock.[21][22][23] Spanish lent it to Classical Nahuatl, Tagalog, Cebuano and English.[1]

Timeline

  • 968 – espata in a Latin-Romance document of the Becerro Gótico de Valpuesta.[10]
  • 1090 – the date of first record Corominas gives.[2]
  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, in a 14th-century copy.[11]
  • 1211 – the first record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.[24]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first hit in the CDH not known from a later copy.[11]
  • 1252 – Catalan espasa is first recorded, in a toll list of Tortosa.[7]
  • 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[25]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias calls the sword the symbol of justice and power.[14]
  • 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the ace of swords and the swordfish.[15]
  • 1884 – the Academy records the bullfighter sense.[19]

Meanings

Noun

  1. sword: a long, straight, pointed and cutting blade with a guard and a hilt.[3][1]
  2. A person skilled with the sword: Era la mejor espada de la corte.[3]
  3. (card games) A card of the suit of espadas; the ace of that suit;[3][1] (in the plural) one of the four suits of the Spanish deck, corresponding to spades.[3][1]
  4. (fencing) The épée, a sword without an edge whose point does not wound, and the discipline fought with it.[3][1]
  5. (geometry) The sagitta of an arc.[3]
  6. (bullfighting, masculine) The matador who kills the bull.[3][1]
  7. (Argentina, slang) A wire lock-pick.[3][22]
  8. (Puerto Rico) A long tail feather of a cock.[22][23]

Word family

  • espadar
  • espadero
  • espadilla
  • espadín
  • espadón
  • espadachín
  • espadaña
  • espadarte
  • pez espada
  • espátula
  • espata
  • Latin spatha
  • Catalan espasa

Usage notes

Set phrases include espada de Damocles, a lasting threat, and entre la espada y la pared, “between a rock and a hard place”.[3][26] The matador is el espada, and primer espada is the chief bullfighter of a corrida.[26][20]

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 Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espada
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. espada
  4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  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. spatha
  7. ^ a b 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. 3, 622
  8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. épée
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. espada
  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. espada
  12. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. espada
  13. ^ 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. espada
  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. 783
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 587
  16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 385
  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. 740
  18. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 921
  19. ^ 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. 455
  20. ^ a b 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. 286
  21. ^ Salillas, Rafael (1896), El delincuente español: el lenguaje, Madrid: Victoriano Suárez, p. 326
  22. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. espada
  23. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. espada
  24. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
  25. ^ 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. espada
  26. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espada

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Espada.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/espada. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·