estrada

Forms

estrada f (plural estradas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish estrada, inherited from Late Latin strāta (“paved road”), short for via strāta (“paved way”).^[2][3][1] The participle strātus belongs to sternō (“to spread out, strew”).^[2][1]

The word was rare in medieval Castilian: Corominas knows it only from the Libro de Alexandre and Alfonso de Palencia.^[2] It lived on better in Italian, in Old Occitan estrada and Old French estrée, and in the loans German Straße and English street.^[2] In the Iberian Peninsula it is Catalan estrada in old legal texts, and Portuguese estrada and Galician estrada “highway” are popular words.^[2][4][5] In the Basque of Biscay and Gipuzkoa, estarta means a path.^[2][4][5]

From the second half of the 16th century, beginning with Fray Luis de Granada, the word came back into use, this time borrowed from Italian strada, above all as a military term of fortification.^[2][6] Hurtado de Mendoza, Cervantes and Covarrubias call it an Italianism.^[2][6] Wiktionary gives acirate as a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy): „echólo muerto frío en medio la estrada” “he threw him down dead and cold in the middle of the road”.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso de Palencia uses estrada for a road of Roman antiquity.^[2] Covarrubias knows it as a family name and explains it as the Tuscan word for a road, what Spanish calls a paved calçada.^[8] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines a paved public road, takes the word from Italian, and adds the fortification terms estrada encubierta “covered way” and batir la estrada “to reconnoitre the countryside”; in the slang of the underworld estrada was the place where the women sat.^[6][9]

Regional senses are a lane between walls, fences or hedges in Biscay and a board hung on cords as a shelf in Salamanca.^[3][10][11] In 15th-century charters from Mondragón estrada is the road between two places.^[7] In the rubber forests of Bolivia and Peru an estrada is a path through about a hundred to a hundred and fifty rubber trees, worked by one tapper.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• 1180 – the form strada in a document of the Pilar archive, according to the DEMel.^[15]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy) has „en medio la estrada”.^[7][2]
• 1273 – Estrada as part of a personal name, Gonçalvo Garcia de Estrada.^[7]
• 1451 – a bill of sale from Mondragón names „la estrada e camino que van de la dicha villa a Çallospe”.^[7]
• second half of the 16th century – Fray Luis de Granada uses the word again, from Italian.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it a Tuscan word for a road.^[8]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records estrada encubierta and batir la estrada.^[6]
• 1746 – first record from the Americas, an estrada encubierta in a Mexican castle.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. strata”.^[17]
• 1910 – Bayo describes the rubber tappers' estrada of Bolivia.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A track or way made by the treading of feet.^[3]
2. A road built for travel.^[3][1]
3. (Biscay, colloquial) A lane between walls, fences or hedges.^[3]
4. (Salamanca) A board hung on cords and used as a shelf for food and other things.^[10][11]
5. (Peru, Bolivia) In a rubber plantation, a path through the forest along some hundred to a hundred and fifty trees, tapped by one worker.^[12][13]
6. (military) estrada encubierta: the covered way of a fortification.^[3]

Related words

• estrado
• estrato
• acirate
• Latin strāta
• Italian strada
• Portuguese estrada

Usage notes

Batir la estrada is a military phrase for reconnoitring the countryside.^[3][6] Estrada is also a common surname.^[1][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 796
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. estrada
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. strata
6. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 644
7. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estrada
8. ^ 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. 810
9. ^ Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779)
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. estrada
11. ^ a b Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 454
12. ^ 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. estrada
13. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 405
14. ^ a b Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 92
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. estrada
16. ^ 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. estrada
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 470