gacel

Forms

gacel m (plural gaceles)^[1]

Etymology

In Corominas's view it is from Spanish gacela, a masculine naming the male of the animal.^[2] That word is from Arabic غزالة (ġazāla), the feminine of the Arabic word for the gazelle.^[2][3][4]

The Academy, Moliner and Wiktionary take the word as a separate loan from Andalusian Arabic, from the Classical غَزَال (ġazāl, “gazelle”).^[5][6][1] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente derive the whole group from the Andalusian Arabic form of the masculine noun and consider the feminine forms formed within Romance.^[7] The form Old Spanish algacel, with the Arabic article, is already found in Alfonso X's astronomical books.^[2][8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in the poems of Francisco de Aldana (c. 1560–1578), in a list of paired animals: sigue el nuevo gacel la tierna gama “the young male gazelle follows the tender doe”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been rare and literary.^[9] The Academy recorded it in 1817 and has defined it since 1869 as the male gazelle; the DLE now marks it as no longer in use.^[10][11][5] Domínguez referred it to gamo.^[12] In modern texts the CDH's hits are mostly a personal name, a car model or a poem of Hafiz.^[9]

Timeline

• 1560–1578 – Aldana uses gacel for the male gazelle.^[9]
• 1570 – the feminine gacela is first recorded, in Mármol.^[2]
• 1817 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Arabic.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) The male of the gacela; a gazelle buck.^[5][1]

Related words

• gacela
• Arabic غَزَال (ġazāl)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 12
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gacela
4. ^ a b Eguílaz y Yanguas, Leopoldo de (1886), Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, portuguesas, valencianas y bascongadas) de origen oriental, Granada: La Lealtad, p. 427
5. ^ a b c 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. gacel
6. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gacel
7. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. gacel
8. ^ Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 289
9. ^ 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, p. s.v. gacel
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 431
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 375
12. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 846
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 516