grupo

Forms

grupo m (plural grupos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian gruppo (“knot, bundle; group of figures”), an Italian term of the fine arts that became general in Spanish in the 18th century.^[2][3][4][1] In Italian the word is old: it has the general sense in Poliziano in the 15th century, and also the form groppo “knot”.^[2][5] The Italian word spread to the other Romance languages, among them French groupe.^[2][6]

The Italian word is Germanic.^[2][1][6] Corominas takes it probably from Gothic *krupps (“bulky object”), comparing Old High German kropf (“crop of a bird; goitre”), Old English cropp (“crop; ear of grain; cluster”) and Old Norse kroppr (“body”).^[2][3] He rejects Baist's Lombard source, since Lombard turned Germanic /pp/ into /pf/, and Gamillscheg's Frankish *rep (“rope”), and argues from the spread of the word in Italian, Occitan and Catalan that it came from Gothic, whose /u/ often gave both ⟨u⟩ and ⟨o⟩ in Romance.^[2] Nocentini also derives it from *kruppa (“tangle, round mass; knot”).^[6] Wiktionary instead derives the Italian word from Vulgar Latin *cruppus, borrowed from Frankish *krupp, from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“bunch; group; lump”).^[1] Gómez de Silva traces the Germanic family back to a root meaning “curved”.^[7]

The same Germanic word is Catalan grop (“knot in wood; storm cloud”) and Occitan grop, native in those languages.^[2][8] grupa “croup of a horse” comes from French croupe, from a Frankish relative of the Gothic word, and grupada “sudden storm cloud” from Catalan gropada.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Spanish uses have the meteorological sense of Italian and Catalan, a storm cloud with gusts and showers.^[2] A poem by Juan de Dueñas (c. 1407–1463), copied in several cancioneros, speaks of vientos et grupos mortales “deadly winds and squalls” in a storm at sea.^[10][11] Alonso de Palencia (1490) explains Latin nimbus as a sudden summer downpour that is called grupo.^[2][3] Corominas considers this example, and Villamediana's grupo de peña “mass of rock” of about 1610, individual Italianisms.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word is not in the medieval glossaries, Nebrija, Covarrubias or Oudin, nor in Cervantes, Góngora or the other classical authors.^[2] The earliest CDH hit, of 1391, is the phrase un grupo de conversos in the heading of a document in an edition of documents from Jerez, and the DTME dates the word from that year.^[10][12] It entered as a term of painting and sculpture, for a set of figures, and then became general.^[2][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) defines it as a set of things of one kind of which some stand out from the others, with Villamediana's line as its example.^[13][3]

Terreros calls it a term of painting, drawing and sculpture, and notes that in some places a grupo is a bunch of grapes.^[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 defines it as several bodies crowded together, and as a grouping of figures in a picture.^[15] Domínguez (1846–1847) adds any number of people gathered in a public place, mocking the edicts of captains general that forbade groups above a certain size.^[16] In 1884 the Academy gave its etymology for the first time, “from Italian gruppo”.^[17]

Today it also names a set of machines for a service, a music band, a parliamentary group, a military unit, a column of the periodic table, and in mathematics a set with an associative operation.^[4][18] In Argentina, Cuba, Paraguay and Uruguay it also means the pupils of one class.^[4]

Timeline

• 1391 – un grupo de conversos in the heading of a document of Jerez in its edition.^[10][12]
• c. 1407–1463 – Juan de Dueñas uses grupos for squalls at sea.^[10][11]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia gives grupo as the name of a sudden summer downpour.^[2][3]
• c. 1610 – Villamediana writes un grupo de peña.^[3][2]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the general sense.^[13][3]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros calls it a term of the fine arts.^[14]
• early 19th century – the derivative agrupar appears, in Quintana.^[2][3]
• 1846–1847 – Domínguez records groups of people in public places.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Italian gruppo.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A group: a number of beings or things that form a whole, physically or in the mind: un grupo de turistas.^[4][1]
2. A set of machines that provide a service: grupo electrógeno “generating set”.^[4][18]
3. A company of performers of plays, music or dance; a band.^[4][1]
4. (politics) In a parliament or council, the members of one party who form a body of their own: el grupo parlamentario.^[4][18]
5. (art, photography) A unified set of figures in a work.^[4]
6. (grammar) A phrase (sintagma).^[4]
7. (mathematics) A set with an associative operation, an identity element and an inverse for each element.^[4]
8. (military) A unit of several squadrons or batteries, usually under a major.^[4]
9. (chemistry) A column of the periodic table, of elements with similar properties.^[4][18]
10. (Argentina, Cuba, Paraguay, Uruguay) The pupils who attend the same class.^[4]

Word family

• agrupar
• agrupación
• grupal
• grupero
• grupúsculo

Related words

• grupa
• grupada
• Italian gruppo
• Catalan grop

Usage notes

In Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay colloquial grupo also means “lie, trick”.^[19][1] Wiktionary treats it as a separate word from Lunfardo, perhaps from French croupier or Italian groppo.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 228
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grupo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. grupo
5. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 337
8. ^ 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, 674
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3671
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. grupo
11. ^ 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. grupo
12. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. grupo
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 84
14. ^ a b 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, 242
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 452
16. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 896
17. ^ 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. 543
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grupo
19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. grupo