galera

Forms

galera f (plural galeras)^[1] Old Spanish had galea (also galeya, galia) from the 13th century;^[1] galera is recorded from the second quarter of the 15th century, and Pedro de Alcalá still gives both in 1505.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan galera, which in the 15th century replaced Old Spanish galea.^[2][3] The older form also came from Catalan, where galea is recorded from 1120 and the form with ⟨-era⟩ from the end of the 13th century, in Desclot.^[2][3] The Catalan ⟨-era⟩ adapted the ending ⟨-ea⟩ to a frequent suffix.^[2] From Catalan the new form spread to the other languages, and the Kahanes confirmed this Catalan origin.^[2] The Academy's dictionary derives the word simply from the older Spanish form.^[4] Other dictionaries name an Italian source: García de Diego derives it from Italian galera, and Autoridades thought it most likely taken from galea.^[5][6]

It is ultimately from Byzantine Greek γαλέα (galéa), used of a ship from the first half of the 8th century.^[2][3] It was properly the name of a selachian fish, from Ancient Greek γαλέη (galéē, “weasel”): the galley was compared to the fish for its quick and agile movements.^[2][7] Corominas's shorter dictionary speaks of fish like the shark, with whose movements and aggressiveness those of the ship were compared.^[3] The Kahanes started from γαλεός (galeós, “dogfish, shark”), and Wiktionary also does.^[2][1] Beekes notes that the dogfish may have been named after the weasel, but that the formation of the fish name is unclear.^[7]

Corominas dismisses a Latin document of 1130 from San Juan de la Peña that mentions galleys, cited by Du Cange: it is apocryphal or wrongly dated, since Aragon had then no outlet to the sea.^[2] In Portuguese the medieval form with ⟨-ea⟩ was reduced to Portuguese galé.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is galeya in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca of the early 13th century.^[2] In Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora a small boat is towed beside the great ship, non sé si li dizién galea o pinaza “I don't know whether they called it a galley or a pinnace”, so that the crew might escape in it.^[8] The oldest text that survives in a contemporary copy is the Fuero Real of Alfonso X (witness of 1255): Si naue, o galea, o otro nauío “if a ship, or a galley, or any other vessel”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The form galera appears in 1433 and in the Crónica de Pero Niño.^[2] Because the king's galleys were rowed by slaves and convicts, galeras came to mean the penalty of rowing in them: a sentence of 1550 from Panama sends a man to serve “in His Majesty's galleys in Spain at the oar” for four years.^[6][10] Covarrubias in 1611 remarks that most of the rowers were criminals.^[11]

Autoridades adds two transferred senses: a large four-wheeled cart covered with a vault of canes, and a house where women convicted of offences were shut up.^[6] In the thieves' cant of 1609 galera is a cart.^[12] The Academy added the printer's tray for composed type in 1817, and the row of extra beds in hospitals and the line drawn in a division sum by 1884.^[13][14] From the tray came galerada “galley proof”; in Colombia and Argentina galera itself has that sense.^[2][3]

In Mexico and Central America the word names a shed or storehouse: Icazbalceta describes the long buildings of the haciendas where seed and tools were kept, and New Mexican Spanish has it for a farm implement shed.^[15][16][17] In Cuba it is a hall of a prison and the prisoners kept there.^[18] Garzón records it in Argentina for a large covered stagecoach.^[19]

Timeline

• early 13th century – galeya in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[2]
• 1251–1255 – galea in Alfonso X's Fuero Real.^[8]
• 1433 – first record of the form galera.^[2]
• 1505 – Pedro de Alcalá gives both galera and galea.^[2]
• 1545 – first record in the Americas, from the Río de la Plata.^[10]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records the cant sense “cart”.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the galley and its convict rowers.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades adds the covered cart and the women's prison.^[6]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the printer's galley.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del b. lat. galera”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A galley: a long, shallow ship driven by sails and oars, with lateen sails.^[4][1]
2. (in the plural) The penalty of rowing in the king's galleys: Lo mandaron a galeras por diez años.^[20][10]
3. A large four-wheeled wagon for passengers, usually with a cover of strong canvas.^[4][1]
4. In hospitals, an additional row of beds.^[4]
5. (carpentry) A large jack plane (garlopa).^[4]
6. (printing) A galley tray: a board edged on three sides with grooved strips, on which the compositor set the lines of type; also a galley proof (galerada).^[4][1]
7. (engineering) A row of reverberatory furnaces in which several retorts are heated by the same fire.^[4]
8. (mathematics) The lines drawn between dividend and divisor, and under the divisor for the quotient, when writing out a division.^[4]
9. (zoology) Any adult mantis shrimp (order Stomatopoda).^[4][1]
10. (Mexico, Central America) A shed or cobertizo.^[4][17]
11. (Cuba) A hall of a prison occupied by inmates; the inmates kept in it.^[4][18]
12. (rare) A women's prison.^[4][6]

Word family

• galeota
• galeote
• galerada

Related words

• galeón
• galeaza
• Byzantine Greek γαλέα (galéa)

Usage notes

In Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay galera is also, colloquially, a top hat or a bowler, and in Argentina and Uruguay sacar algo de la galera is to surprise someone with something unexpected, as a conjurer draws things from his hat.^[4][19][21] The Academy lists the hat as a sense of this word, but Wiktionary gives it a separate entry, derived from Italian galero, a prelate's hat, from Latin galerum (“leather cap”).^[4][1][22] Other set phrases are galera gruesa, galera sutil and galera bastarda, for the larger, smaller and stronger kinds of galley.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 34
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. galera
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. galera
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3013
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. 4, 8
7. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. galera
9. ^ 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. galera
10. ^ a b c 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. galera
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 883
12. ^ a b 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), p. 178
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 433
14. ^ 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. 518
15. ^ García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. galera
16. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 94
17. ^ 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. galera
18. ^ a b Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 78
19. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 220
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. galera
21. ^ Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 97
22. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. galero