espalda

Forms

espalda f (plural espaldas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish espalda, inherited from Late Latin spatula (“shoulder blade; earlier spatula, blade of certain tools”).^[2][3][4][1] The name passed from the tool to the bone because both are broad and flat.^[3] The Late Latin word is a diminutive of Latin spatha (“broad flat blade”), which was borrowed from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “any broad blade”).^[2][3][1] Latin already used it for the shoulder blade of animals: Apicius (2nd century AD) of the pig, Vegetius (c. 400) of the horse.^[2]

Wiktionary derives the Spanish form by metathesis from Vulgar Latin *spatla.^[1] Corominas notes that the Romance forms start from this late diminutive and not from a syncopated form with /kl/, since the diminutive was formed when the change of /tl/ to /kl/ no longer took place.^[2] He rejects Manu Leumann's view that the word was a reshaping, through a form with /kl/, of scapula (“shoulder blades”) with its consonants swapped, and answers Leumann's objection that a spatula is flat with parallels such as paletilla “shoulder blade” and Sardinian pala.^[2]

The same Late Latin word is Catalan espatlla, Portuguese espádua, Occitan espatla, French épaule and Italian spalla.^[5][6][2] The learned doublet is espátula, recorded from 1488, and espada “sword” comes from the Latin base.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), which says that Saul was taller than all the people de las espaldas a suso “from the shoulders up”.^[7] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) speaks of striking a dog del espalda fasta en la cabeça “from the shoulder to the head”.^[7] Corominas's first record is Berceo's Milagros, where the word already means the back of the body.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word was often close to “shoulder”: in Juan Ruiz the devil offers to hold up a hanged man if he sets his feet on his espaldas.^[2][8] Corominas takes “shoulder blade” as the basic sense, still clear in the Crónica de Alfonso XI and in the surgeon Fragoso in 1581; the need for a popular word for the back of the trunk fixed the Spanish word on that sense, while épaule, spalla and the Catalan word moved towards “shoulder”.^[2] Catalan still distinguishes espatlla “shoulder blade” from muscle “shoulder” and esquena “back”, and Portuguese espádua from ombro and costas.^[2]

Covarrubias in 1611 explains the name by the flat bone shaped like a spatula, and records hazer espaldas “to back someone up” and bolver las espaldas “to turn one's back, abandon”.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades notes that the word is usually plural and is also said of animals.^[10] In 1884 the Academy added the back of a building and a body of troops covering the rear of another;^[11] today the DLE also has the backstroke in swimming.^[4] Espalda mojada “wetback” is a Mexican who crosses into the United States illegally.^[12]

Timeline

• 1141 – the form espaldam appears in a charter of the San Vicente de Oviedo collection.^[13]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has espaldas “shoulders” (in a 13th-century copy).^[7]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record without a later copy.^[7]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date, from Berceo's Milagros.^[3][2]
• 1488 – the learned doublet espátula appears, in an Aragonese text.^[2]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin scapula as its equivalent.^[14]
• 1515 – a first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme: teníamos seguras las espaldas “our rear was safe”.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records hazer espaldas and bolver las espaldas.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin spathula “shoulder blade”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often in the plural) The back of the human body, from the shoulders to the waist.^[4][1]
2. The back of an animal's trunk.^[4]
3. In a horse, the region of the forelegs that runs down from the withers and forms the chest.^[4]
4. The part of a garment that covers the back: La chaqueta le queda estrecha de espalda.^[4]
5. (often in the plural) The back or rear of a building.^[4][12]
6. (sports) backstroke.^[4][1]
7. (obsolete) A retaining wall (espaldón); in the plural, a body of troops guarding the rear.^[4]

Word family

• espaldar
• respaldar
• espaldera
• espaldero
• espaldón
• espaldarazo
• respaldo
• espaldilla

Related words

• espada
• espátula
• Late Latin spatula
• Catalan espatlla

Usage notes

Espalda is used in the singular and the plural with the same meaning.^[4] Old phrases include hazer espaldas “to support someone” and bolver las espaldas “to turn one's back”.^[9] Espalda mojada (Mexico, the United States) is a migrant who has crossed the border illegally.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 733
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espalda
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. espalda
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C.
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 785
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 589
11. ^ 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. 456
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
13. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 349
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies