garra

Forms

garra f (plural garras)^[1] In the Middle Ages the word was garfa (spelt garpha in the Libro de Alexandre), which survives in the DLE as a separate headword.^[2][3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish garfa (“claw; handful”), borrowed from Andalusian Arabic غرفة (ḡarfa, “handful”), from Arabic غرفة (ḡarfah), a derivative of the root of غرف (ḡarafa, “to scoop up water; to snatch, grasp”).^[2][4][3][1] The BDELC notes that the Arabic of Spain already used the word for “claw” in the 13th century.^[4] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente derive both the old and the modern form from the same Andalusian Arabic word.^[5]

The change from “handful” to “claw” was helped, according to Corominas, by the similar garfio (“strong hook”), from Latin graphium (“stylus”), γραφεῖον (grapheîon), whose form and sense were in turn influenced by the Arabism.^[2][4] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente derive the word for “hook” itself from the Arabic word, with a Romance suffix.^[5] In his Catalan dictionary Coromines explains the modern form by the /f/ of the old one becoming an aspirated /h/ after /r/ and then assimilated to it, as the Arabism màrfega became márraga in Castilian.^[6]

García de Diego and DICCA-XV instead derive the word from Proto-Celtic *garra (“leg”), which Wiktionary gives as a second possibility.^[7][8][1] Corominas keeps that Celtic word apart: it is the homonym meaning “leg, calf”, alive mainly in Aragon and Navarre, the relative of Catalan garra, Occitan garra and French jarret.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the sense of the Arabic word, Old Spanish garfa meant “handful” from 1220 and “claw” from the middle of the 13th century, in the Libro de Alexandre.^[4][2] The form garra for a claw first appears in 1570, in Cristóbal de las Casas's Spanish–Italian vocabulary (garras: artigli, zampe), and its first literary records are in Góngora and the Quijote.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1726) defines the garra as the paw of a beast or the foot of a bird armed with strong, curved, sharp claws, like the lion's or the eagle's; it adds the figurative “hand of a man” and the phrases caer en las garras “to fall into someone's power” and cinco y la garra, said of things got by stealing.^[9] Covarrubias had linked it with desgarrar “to tear”.^[10] The Academy's 1884 edition derived the word from Old High German harfan “to snatch”.^[11]

Today the word also means drive or fighting spirit, especially in sport.^[12][13] In the Americas it names a piece of hardened, wrinkled leather, the edge of a hide pegged out to dry, a leather bag, an old shoe, and in the plural rags.^[12][14] In Aragon and Navarre garra “leg” continues the separate Celtic word.^[12][2]

Timeline

• 1220 – Old Spanish garfa “handful”.^[4]
• mid-13th century – garpha “claw”, in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][4]
• 1250–1300 – garras “legs” in the Fuero General de Navarra, the separate Celtic word.^[15][2]
• 1569 – the derivative agarrar in La Araucana.^[4][6]
• 1570 – garra “claw” in C. de las Casas's vocabulary.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the talon of a bird of prey.^[10]
• 1726 – Autoridades records caer en las garras and cinco y la garra.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy proposes a Germanic etymology.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A claw, talon: the paw or foot of an animal armed with strong, curved, sharp nails, like the lion's or the eagle's.^[12][1]
2. (colloquial, derogatory) A person's hand.^[12][13]
3. Drive, grit, fighting spirit: Al equipo le faltó garra en la segunda parte.^[12][1]
4. (nautical) Each hook of a grapnel.^[12]
5. (Aragon, Navarre) The leg.^[12]
6. (Argentina, Uruguay) The edge of a hide by which it is pegged out to stretch.^[12][14]
7. (Colombia, Puerto Rico, Uruguay) A piece of hardened, wrinkled leather;^[14] (Colombia) a leather bag.^[12][14]
8. (Uruguay) Any piece of riding gear;^[13] (colloquial) a poor-quality object.^[12]
9. (in the plural, furriery) The leg skins, the least valued part of a pelt.^[12][13]
10. (in the plural, Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Uruguay) rags, tatters.^[12]
11. (in the plural) Clutches, power: Por fin escapó de las garras de la mafia.^[12][1]

Word family

• agarrar
• desgarrar
• desgarro
• desgarrón
• agarrón

Related words

• garfa
• garfio
• Catalan garra
• French jarret

Usage notes

Caer en las garras de alguien is to fall into the power of someone one fears.^[12][9] The older form garfa is still in the DLE for the curved claws of an animal and in echar la garfa “to try to grab something”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 102
3. ^ 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. garfa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. garra
5. ^ a b 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. garfio
6. ^ a b c d 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. 4, 387
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3048
8. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. garra
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 27
10. ^ 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. 897
11. ^ 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. 524
12. ^ 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. garra
13. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. garra
14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. garra
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. garra