grapa

Forms

grapa f (plural grapas)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Catalan grapa (“claw; clamp”), which in turn is Germanic, apparently from Frankish *krappa (“hook, claw”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls it a late word in Castilian and a specialised term of ironmongery, absent from Palencia, Nebrija, Percyvall, Oudin, Covarrubias and the medieval and classical glossaries; in Catalan it is very old and has a much wider range of meaning: “claw”, names of farm tools and ironmongery.^[2] Coromines's Catalan dictionary dates the noun, grapar and grapada to the 14th century, and the noun in a special sense to the 13th.^[5] Prat Sabater counts it among the Catalanisms of the 17th century.^[6]

The word is shared by Catalan, Occitan and Italian grappa (“clamp”), and Old French had it until French grappe (“bunch of grapes”) took over.^[2][7][8] Corominas rejects Gamillscheg's Gothic source: within Germanic the word is attested almost only in German, Old High German krapfo (“hook”) and German Krapfen; a Gothic form would have had the vowel ⟨ē⟩, and Wartburg showed such a form to be the source of Franco-Provençal and Provençal grepa (“hook”).^[2] He therefore prefers a Frankish or common West Germanic word.^[2]

The variant grampa, used by sailors and in most of the Americas and recorded only from the 19th century, Corominas takes from Italian grampa (“claw”), which goes back to another Germanic form, the source of English cramp (“clamp”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is the Viaje de Juan de Mandevilla (c. 1400), where a leaf is compared to grapa de vuas bien verde, “a very green bunch of grapes”.^[9][10] A Spanish translation of Gordonio's Lilio de medicina printed in 1495 has grapa o calambre for a cramp in the legs.^[9][11]

Semantic evolution

Veterinary writers of the 16th century name grapas among the sores of horses' legs, as Francisco de la Reina does in 1564.^[9] The iron clamp appears in a building contract of 1580 (engrapar ... con grapas de hierro), a century before Corominas's first record, the price list of 1680.^[9][2] Autoridades (1734) defined it as an iron piece with two spikes and a crosspiece that holds two stones or other things together, and as a sore in the joints of horses.^[12] Terreros added the iron that joins the two swingletrees of a coach.^[13] The Academy's edition of 1884 derived the word from German Krampe.^[14]

The small staple for fastening papers and the surgical staple are modern senses.^[4][11] In Mexico grapa is a dose of cocaine wrapped in paper.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the Viaje de Juan de Mandevilla compares a leaf to a bunch of grapes.^[9]
• 1495 – the Spanish Lilio de medicina uses it for a cramp.^[9][11]
• 1564 – Francisco de la Reina's book of farriery names it among the sores of horses.^[9]
• 1580 – iron clamps in a building contract.^[9]
• 1680 – the price list, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines the clamp and the sore.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives a German etymology.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clamp or cramp iron: a piece of iron or other metal with both ends bent and pointed, driven in to join two boards or other things.^[4][1]
2. A staple for fastening papers: Une las hojas con una grapa.^[4][1]
3. (surgery) A similar piece used to close the edges of a wound.^[4][1]
4. The stalk of a bunch of grapes, escobajo.^[4]
5. (veterinary) A transverse sore on the front of the hock or the back of the knee of horses.^[4]
6. (veterinary) A growth like an ulcerated wart on the fetlock or pastern of horses.^[4]
7. (Mexico, slang) A dose of cocaine wrapped in a twist of paper.^[15]

Word family

• engrapar
• grapadora
• engrapadora
• engrapador
• grapar

Related words

• grampa
• Catalan grapa
• Italian grappa
• French grappe

Usage notes

The DLE has a second grapa for Argentina and Uruguay, “grappa, brandy distilled from grape pomace”, from Italian grappa.^[4] The DHLE first records it in 1883, in the proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies in Buenos Aires; the Italian word is recorded from at least 1871 and comes from grapa “brandy”, from grapo “bunch of grapes”.^[16] The DAMER adds Chile.^[15]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 199
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grapa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. grapa
5. ^ 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, 618
6. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 345
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. grappa
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. grappe
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. grapa
10. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. grapa
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. grapa
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 75
13. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 235
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. 540
15. ^ 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. grapa
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. grapa