faisán

Forms

faisán m (plural faisanes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan faisan, which is from Latin phāsiānus, from Ancient Greek φασιανός (phasianós), literally “of the Phasis”, a river of Colchis from which the birds were brought.^[2][3][4] The DLE spells the Occitan form faizan.^[4] Like avestruz, it was taken from the Old Occitan bestiaries, Corominas says.^[2] Bénaben, Gómez de Silva and Vox also bring it through Old Occitan,^[5][6][7] while Wiktionary takes it from French faisan.^[1] The Greek adjective comes from the river's name, Φᾶσις (Phâsis).^[1] Covarrubias already told how the first pheasants were bred on the banks of the Phasis and brought to Greece by the Argonauts.^[8]

The same Latin word is Italian fagiano and Catalan faisà.^[9] Coromines thinks the Catalan word came from Occitan too, first recorded in Eiximenis.^[10] Portuguese faisão was taken from Spanish, according to Cunha, in the 16th century,^[11] while Houaiss dates it to the 15th century and derives it from Occitan or Old Catalan through Spanish.^[12] Aragonese frosano and fresana are recorded in Aragon.^[13][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (1256–1265) has the plural faysanes, and the Libro de los animales que cazan (Moamín), of the second half of the 13th century, recommends the fat of the birds called feisanes.^[14][15][2] In the Estoria de España (c. 1270) there are many pheasants and peacocks at a feast.^[16]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the pheasant is a luxury bird, served beside the peacock: in the Libro de buen amor fine pheasants march with the proud peacocks in Don Carnal's army.^[16] Covarrubias called it a morsel for princes and the royal table.^[8] In the Americas the Spaniards gave the name to native birds: a text of 1549 from Santo Domingo speaks of birds “that the Christians call pheasants”, and in 1571 a Nahuatl vocabulary of Mexico City translates coxolitli as faisán.^[17]

In Asturias and León the word names the capercaillie,^[18][19][4] in Córdoba and Seville an edible brown mushroom of the rockrose scrub,^[4] and in the Canaries the cream-coloured courser, a fast-running bird of the stony plains.^[20] In Puerto Rico it was an old name for a fighting cock with a bare neck.^[21] In youth slang in Colombia it means a small-scale marijuana seller, and in Argentine criminal slang a marijuana cigarette.^[22]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – Alfonso X's Siete Partidas record faysanes.^[14][2]
• c. 1270 – the Estoria de España mentions pheasants at a feast.^[16]
• 1300–1305 – the Libro del cavallero Cifar (in a late 15th-century copy) has the singular faisán.^[16][2]
• 1330–1343 – the Libro de buen amor uses it;^[23] Corominas dates the word 1335 from this text.^[16][3][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija calls it a precious bird, Latin phasianus.^[23]
• 1544 – the first record from the Americas, in Paraguay.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias tells the story of the river Phasis.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin and Greek.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. pheasant, a game bird about the size of a cock, the male with a crest, a long tail and bright plumage, prized for its meat: Cazaron dos faisanes en el soto.^[4][1]
2. (Asturias, León) The capercaillie (urogallo).^[4][18]
3. (Córdoba, Seville) An edible brown mushroom that grows among rockroses.^[4][25]
4. (Colombia; youth slang) A small-scale seller of marijuana.^[22]
5. (Argentina; criminal slang) A marijuana cigarette.^[22]

Related words

• Latin phāsiānus
• French faisan

Usage notes

The female is faisana, recorded by the Academy in 1884; the DLE uses the masculine for the species.^[24][4] A separate word faisán of Cantabria means the same as fisán, a bean;^[4] García de Diego explains the Burgos faisán “bean” as an outcome of Latin phaseolus altered under the influence of the bird's name.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 835
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. faisán
4. ^ 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. faisán
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. faisán
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 301
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. faisán
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. 827
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. phasiānus
10. ^ 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, 852
11. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1520
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. faisão
13. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. phasianus
14. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. faisán
15. ^ 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. faisán
16. ^ 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. faisán
17. ^ 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. faisán
18. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. faisán
19. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. faisán
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. faisán
21. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. faisán
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. faisán
23. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 353
24. ^ 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. 485
25. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. faisán
26. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4996