fragata

Forms

fragata f (plural fragatas)^[1] Records from Cuba of 1571 and 1579 have the Italian spelling fregata.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian fregata, dialectally with ⟨a⟩, recorded in Italian since about 1350.^[3][4][1] The Italian word is first found in Boccaccio in 1353.^[5] Its origin is uncertain.^[3][5]

Corominas notes that until the 17th century the frigate was a light boat usually towed by larger ships, and suggests that it was named from its use in a shipwreck: a shortening of naufragata, with the first syllable ⟨nau-⟩ read as the word for “ship” and dropped.^[3][6] Nocentini follows a proposal of the Battisti–Alessio dictionary, an ellipsis from Vulgar Latin *virgata “(ship) with a yard”, from virga (“rod; yard”), with metathesis of the /r/.^[7] Alessio took it from a Calabrian word for “seashore”, as a coastal boat;^[8] Nocentini finds the motivation weak in Corominas's and Alessio's proposals alike.^[7] The derivation from Ancient Greek ἄφρακτος (áphraktos, “unprotected (ship)”), which the Academy's dictionaries gave from 1884, is phonetically unconvincing according to the DELI.^[8][5][1]

According to Nocentini, the Iberian forms rest on the Sicilian variant with ⟨a⟩, and the Italian word also passed into French frégate, the source of English frigate and German Fregatte.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1535.^[3] The CDH's earliest hit is a letter of Gonzalo Pizarro to Pedro de Valdivia of 1547, telling how a captain had come from Nicaragua en unas fragatas “in some frigates”.^[9] A record from Panama in 1550 shows that these were small vessels that could be rowed against the wind.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades describes the frigate as a warship, sometimes high-sided and sometimes low and very light, usually with two decks, and records the fragata de aviso, a small dispatch boat, and the fragata ligera with one deck and 16 to 20 guns.^[10] Terreros notes that in the Mediterranean it was a small ship, while on the ocean it was a warship of up to two decks.^[11] From 1817 the Academy defined it as a three-masted ship with tops and a single covered battery, and in 1843 it made the fragata ligera the same as the corbeta.^[12][13]

Salvá in 1846 also records the tropical sea bird, the rabihorcado, under this name.^[14][15] The modern Academy dictionary puts first the patrol and escort warship with anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons.^[4] In Andalusia a large, imposing woman can be called a fragata.^[16]

Timeline

• 1535 – Corominas's first record.^[3]
• 1547 – the CDH's earliest hit, in a letter of Gonzalo Pizarro about events in Peru.^[9]
• 1550 – a record from Panama of rowed frigates.^[2]
• 1571 – the spelling fregata in Cuba.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades describes the warship and records fragata de aviso and fragata ligera.^[10]
• 1846 – Salvá records the name of the frigatebird.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Greek áphraktos.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A frigate: a warship for patrol and escort duties, armed against submarines, aircraft and surface ships.^[4][17][1]
2. (historical) A three-masted sailing ship with tops and yards on every mast.^[4][17]
3. (zoology) The frigatebird (Fregata), a large tropical sea bird, also called rabihorcado.^[1][18][19]

Related words

• corbeta
• Italian fregata
• French frégate
• English frigate

Usage notes

Fragata ligera is an older name for the corbeta, and the ranks capitán de fragata and alférez de fragata are named after the ship.^[4][17] For the bird, the Spanish Wiktionary suggests a separate origin, probably from forcada.^[20] Nocentini instead explains the Italian bird name as a loan from French frégate, where the ship's name was applied to the bird for its wingspan and fast flight.^[7][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. fragata
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fragata
4. ^ a b c d e 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. fragata
5. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. fregata
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. fragata
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. fregata
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 507
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. fragata
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 787
11. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 182
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 424
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 349
14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 529
15. ^ 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, 1038
16. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 281
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fragata
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. fragata
19. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 231
20. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org