gayo

gayo¹ jay

Etymology tree of gayo¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin gaius

French geai

Spanish gayo

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡaʝo/, [ˈɡa.ʝo], /ˈɡaʃo/^[1]

Forms

gayo m (plural gayos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the jay is inherited from Late Latin gaius, through Old Spanish gayo.^[2][1][3] The Late Latin bird name is generally taken from the Roman first name Latin Gaius, as urraca “magpie” is a woman's name.^[2][1][4] Wiktionary also notes that it may be imitative, and that the bird name may be older than the personal name.^[1]

The same word is Portuguese gaio, Catalan gaig, Occitan gai and Asturian glayo;^[5][6][7] Italian gazza “magpie” comes from the feminine.^[5][6][7] Du Cange equates it with the magpie.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Alexandre, of 1240–1250 in an early 15th-century copy, names los gayos, las calandras, los tordos among the singing birds.^[9][10] Alfonso X's Setenario lists gayos e tordos e picaças among the birds that talk, which were offered in sacrifice.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Juan Ruiz and other medieval poets name the bird among those that sing sweetly and give joy.^[11] The name has been applied to several birds: Terreros notes that some take it for a kind of magpie, most for a kind of rook, and others for a large thrush.^[12] García de Diego records it for the rook in Álava, Navarre and Aragon and for the oriole in Galicia, and Moliner gives both rook and magpie as old senses.^[5][13] The DLE defines it as the jay, a crow-family bird with brown plumage speckled with blue, white and black.^[2]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – gayos among the singing birds of the Libro de Alexandre.^[9]
• c. 1252–1270 – Alfonso X's Setenario names it among the talking birds.^[9]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros describes it as a bird that learns to talk.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The jay, a passerine (paseriforme) bird of the crow family, with brown plumage speckled with blue, white and black.^[2][1]
2. (obsolete) The rook (grajo); the magpie (urraca).^[13]

gayo² merry, bright

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡaʝo/, [ˈɡa.ʝo], /ˈɡaʃo/^[1]

Forms

gayo (feminine gaya, masculine plural gayos, feminine plural gayas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “merry, bright” is borrowed from Occitan gai (“merry”).^{[2][1][11][14]} Corominas calls it a Gallo-Romance word, probably Occitan, which spread from there to French, Spanish and other languages; in Occitan it is found from the first troubadour, about 1100, and he takes French gai for an Occitan loan too.^[11][14]

The origin of the Occitan word is uncertain.^[11][14] Corominas thinks it probably a reduction of gauy (“joy”), from Latin gaudium (“joy”), since the Occitan word also meant “joy” and gau is found as an adjective; the Academy had derived the Spanish word from the Latin noun in 1884.^[11][14][15] He rejects two older proposals, Gamillscheg's *wahi “adorned”, and the *gahi of Diez and Brüch, based on Old High German gāhi (“quick, rash”), which Alemany gave in 1917.^[11][16] Sainéan's derivation from the bird name gaius would also be easy in sense, but Corominas finds the form of the Occitan feminine against it.^[11]

The same Occitan word gave Catalan gai and Portuguese gaio; in Portuguese the word was frequent already in the Middle Ages.^[11][17] Cunha dates the Portuguese adjective from the 16th century and takes it from French.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the phrase gaya ciencia “the gay science”, the art of poetry, in the Cancionero de Baena about 1400;^[11][14] Enrique de Villena and the Marquis of Santillana use it too.^[11][14] Corominas found no independent use of the adjective before Covarrubias, who in 1611 glosses gayo o gayete as cheerful, pleasant, delightful and elegant.^[11][19]

Semantic evolution

In Spanish the word has always kept a foreign air.^[11] Oudin in 1616 gives it as “merry, many-coloured”, Autoridades leaves it out, and it is absent from the Quijote and Góngora.^[11] The sense “bright, pleasing to the eye” became frequent from the early 19th century, in phrases like gayas flores and gayos colores.^[11] The Academy defined it from 1869 as “cheerful, showy”, and the DLE keeps that definition;^{[20][2][13][21]} Moliner and Vox mark it as literary or formal.^{[20][2][13][21]} In Bogotá it is recorded for vivid colours in 1866.^[22]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Occitan gai in the first troubadour, Guilhem of Poitiers.^[11]
• c. 1400 – gaya ciencia in the Cancionero de Baena.^[11][14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: gayo o gayete, cheerful.^[19]
• 1616 – Oudin: “merry, many-coloured”.^[11]
• 1869 – the Academy's “cheerful, showy”.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin gaudium.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) merry, cheerful; bright (vistoso), showy: un vestido de colores gayos.^{[2][13][21][1]}