flauta

Forms

flauta f (plural flautas)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan flauta, recorded about 1200.^[2][3][4] The DLE also gives Occitan as its possible source, and Wiktionary names flaut.^[3][1] The Occitan word is of uncertain formation: Corominas thinks it may come from the verb flautar (“to play the flute”) (12th century), a blend of Late Latin flatare (“to blow”) with flaujar, from flaujol (“pipe”), from Vulgar Latin *flabeolum, classical Latin flābellum (“fan, small bellows”).^[2][5] García de Diego instead explains the Occitan forms as a blend of the word for the pipe with laut (“lute”).^[6]

The word is shared by the western Romance languages: Catalan flauta, Portuguese frauta and Portuguese flauta, French flûte (Old French flaüte), Italian flauto;^[7][8] Coromines thinks some or all of them took it from Occitan and that imitation of the sound may have played a part.^[9][7][8] Gómez de Silva and the DHLF also see an imitation of the sound, with the vowels a-u for the wind in a pipe and fl- from the family of flō (“to blow”).^[10][11] P. Guiraud derived the French word from flahuter (“to make “hu” by blowing”).^[11][12]

Older Spanish dictionaries derived it directly from Latin: Autoridades from the verb for “to blow”, the Academy in 1884 and 1899 from flātus (“blowing, breath”), and Alemany in 1917 from Old French.^[13][14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343), in a list of instruments: la flauta diz con ellos, más alta que un risco “the flute joins them, higher than a crag”.^[16][17] The DHLE notes that it first named a shepherd's instrument.^[4] The BDELC dates the word 1335.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th century the word was used in all kinds of texts, in Spain and later in the Americas (Mexico, 1535), sometimes as a general name for wind instruments of a similar kind.^[4][18] The flauta travesera or alemana, held sideways, is recorded from Fray Luis de León's translation of Horace (1550–1580), and the flauta dulce with a mouthpiece at the top from 1764.^[4] From 1536 the word also named the flute stops and pipes of an organ.^[4][19]

Other senses came later: a long, narrow sailing ship (1770), the art of playing the flute (1822) and the flautist himself (1842).^[4] The figurative sense “penis” is recorded from 1938, in Spain and parts of the Americas.^[4][20] In Cuba and the River Plate a long loaf is a flauta (first recorded by Santamaría in 1942), and in Mexico a long rolled and fried taco (1997, in the DLE since 2001).^[4][21][3] In Argentina ¡la gran flauta! expresses surprise.^[22]

Timeline

• 1330–1343 – first record, in the Libro de buen amor.^[4][16]
• 1379–1384 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Plutarch has both flauta and flautero.^[16]
• 1490–1495 – entered by Alfonso de Palencia and Nebrija, who gives Latin fistula, tibia and calamus.^[4][23]
• 1535 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1536 – first use for the flute stops of an organ.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias tells the myth of Pan and Syrinx as the origin of the instrument.^[24]
• 1732 – Autoridades defines the flauta dulce and derives the word from Latin.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy distinguishes the flauta dulce and the travesera.^[25]
• 1942 – Santamaría records the Cuban sense “loaf of bread”.^[21][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) A flute: a wind instrument in the form of a tube with holes closed by the fingers or by keys.^[3][1]
2. (Argentina, Cuba, Paraguay, Uruguay) A long loaf of bread with a hard crust, a baguette.^[3][20]
3. (Mexico) A taco longer than usual, made of a rolled, filled and fried corn tortilla.^[3][20]
4. A flautist (flautista).^[3]

Word family

• aflautado
• flautero
• flautista
• enflautar
• flautín
• flautado

Related words

• Old Occitan flauta
• Italian flauto

Usage notes

Flauta de Pan is the panpipe and flauta dulce the recorder.^[3][26] The phrase sonar la flauta (por casualidad), from a fable, comments on a lucky hit.^[26][5] In Puerto Rico and Bolivia the word is used in vulgar senses (penis; a woman easily seduced).^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. flauta
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. flauta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. flauta
5. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 266
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2819
7. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1577
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 311
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. flauta
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. flauta
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 499
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 780
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle
18. ^ 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
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
20. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
21. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 611
22. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 213
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 354
24. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 852
25. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 418
26. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. flauta