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gotera

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word gotera

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1212 a charter from Osma in Oelschläger's list More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin gutta
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin gutta
French goutte
Spanish gota
Spanish gotera

Pronunciation

  • /ɡoˈteɾa/, [ɡoˈt̪e.ɾa][1]

Forms

gotera f (plural goteras)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish gota + -era, from the noun for a drop of liquid.[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives in his article on that noun.[4] The noun itself continues Latin gutta (“drop”).[5][6]

The same formation is Catalan gotera “hole through which water drips into a building” and Portuguese goteira, recorded from the 13th century for the spouts along the eaves.[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter from Osma of 1212, in Oelschläger's list of first records.[4] The early sense is “the place where the water from the roofs falls”, the strip under the eaves; from it came the custom of naming the exidas and goteras among the appurtenances of a property, as the Osma charter does, and as do the Fuero de la Novenera and the Vidal Mayor.[4] The Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) speaks of taking las agoas pluuiales de las goteras de su casa, “the rainwater from the eaves of his house”.[9]

Semantic evolution

From the strip under the eaves the plural came to mean the surroundings of a house (in Santander), and, from there, in America, the outskirts of a city: Sarmiento uses it of Buenos Aires in Facundo.[4] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 records goteras “neighbourhood, suburbs” for Chile and Peru, and an adverbial use “very near” in Chile.[10] Today the DLE labels the plural sense for Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, and the DAMER marks it as old-fashioned in eastern Bolivia.[2][11]

The sense of a leak indoors was the main one by 1734, when Autoridades defined the word as the drops falling from roofs or through cracks in broken tiles, and also as the broken gutter itself; it quotes Luis de Granada: Grandes casas se vienen por tiempo a arruinar, si no se hace caso de las goteras, “great houses come to ruin in time if the leaks are neglected”.[12] The Academy's edition of 1843 added the valance hanging round a canopy or a bed, and the proverb la gotera cava la piedra “the drip wears away the stone”, glossed with the Latin gutta cavat lapidem.[13] The figurative sense “ailment”, mostly plural, appears in 1869, and a disease of trees (griseta) in 1899.[14][15] Moliner records the proverb el que no compone la gotera, compone la casa entera, which advises mending small faults in time.[16]

In parts of Latin America the word also means a series of drops falling at intervals (Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Chile, north-western Argentina), and in El Salvador and Bolivia gonorrhoea.[11]

Timeline

  • 1180 – DICCA-XV reports a first record of this date in the CORDE.[17]
  • 1212 – a charter from Osma names the goteras among the parts of a property.[4]
  • 1221 – the Fuero de Plasencia has goteras.[18]
  • c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor speaks of rainwater from the eaves of a house.[9]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin equivalent stillicidium.[17][19]
  • 1553 – first record from the Americas, in Puebla.[20]
  • 1734 – Autoridades defines the leak and the broken gutter.[12]
  • 1843 – the Academy adds the valance of a canopy and the proverb la gotera cava la piedra.[13]
  • 1869 – the figurative sense “ailment” enters the Academy's dictionary.[14]
  • 1917 – Alemany records the plural “surroundings, suburbs” for Chile and Peru.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A leak: water seeping through a roof or ceiling: Cada vez que llueve tenemos una gotera en la cocina.[2][1]
  2. The crack through which such water comes in.[2]
  3. The stain that the leaking water leaves.[2]
  4. The place where the water running off the roofs falls; the eaves.[2][1]
  5. (usually in the plural) The aches and ailments of old age.[2][16]
  6. A disease of trees, griseta.[2]
  7. A valance hanging round a canopy or the tester of a bed as decoration.[2]
  8. (colloquial, dated) A persistent, tiresome thing or person.[2]
  9. (in the plural, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico) The outskirts or surroundings of a town.[2][11][1]

Word family

  • goterón
  • gota
  • gotear
  • gotero
  • Catalan gotera
  • Portuguese goteira
  • Latin gutta

Usage notes

The DLE records the phrase hidalgo de gotera.[2] The Academy long glossed the expression es una gotera as a run of troubles that keeps recurring.[21][22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. gotera
  3. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 183
  5. ^ 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. gota
  6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gota
  7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. gotera
  8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. goteira
  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. gotera
  10. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 843
  11. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. gotera
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 65
  13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 368
  14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 390
  15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 499
  16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gotera
  17. ^ a b 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. gotera
  18. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. gotera
  19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 357
  20. ^ 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. gotera
  21. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. gotera
  22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 536
Cite this entry

“Gotera.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/gotera. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·