gualda

Forms

gualda f (plural gualdas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a Germanic plant name, borrowed from Proto-Germanic *walda (“weld”), but Corominas cannot decide whether Spanish took it directly from Gothic or from Frankish through early French, where it was gualde before it became gaude in the 13th century.^[2][3][4] Meyer-Lübke and Kluge derived it from Gothic;^[2] Gamillscheg admits Gothic as possible but prefers Frankish.^[2] Against a Gothic source speaks the late record of Italian gualda, a rare word attested only recently; for it speaks the firm place of the word in Spanish, which formed gualdo from it, and Corominas notes that a plant name of this kind can easily go unrecorded for centuries.^[2] The same Germanic word is Middle Dutch woude, today Dutch wouw, and Middle English wolde, today English weld.^[4][3]

In Romance it is recorded early in French, in the 13th century, then as Old Occitan gauda in 1308 and Old Catalan gauda at the end of the 14th century.^[2] García de Diego adds Aragonese gauda in old Aragonese and in Valencian, and Galician gualdra and goldra;^[5][2] Corominas gives gualda for common Galician and the other two forms for Lugo.^[5][2] He rejects a Leonese derivative of Old Spanish goldrar (“to colour”) as the source, since a Leonese word could hardly have spread to French, Occitan and Catalan so early.^[2] Portuguese has only the adjective, Portuguese gualdo or gualde, both in Rodrigues Lobo (1619).^[2]

The plant was long confused in Spanish and Italian with woad, called Italian guado, a word of Lombardic origin.^[2] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived the word from Latin galbus (“yellowish”), and Alemany from the English word.^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found no medieval record and dated the word from Laguna in 1555, who wrongly gave it as the name of woad, a blue dye plant;^[2][3] Fragoso, about 1580, used it correctly.^[2][3] The CDH has earlier records.^[9] A medical text by Alfonso Chirino, written before 1429 and known from a late 15th-century copy, prescribes for deafness a stick delas gualdas held in the ear and in the embers.^[9] Juan Alfonso de Baena, before 1435, mocks a man who tiene de color de gualdas las espaldas “has a back the colour of weld”.^[9] A price list of Cuenca of 1462 sets el arrova de la gualda, a treynta maravedís, and a merchant's report of 1495 orders green cloth to be dyed con gualda y non con torvisco, que es falsa tinta “with weld and not with spurge flax, which is a false dye”.^[9] The DEMel also has the word in the glossaries of the Aragonese customs tariffs and of the Cancionero de Baena.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 confused weld with woad, from which the dyers made blue.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades describes it as a herb with golden flowers, growing in damp places and used to dye yellow, and quotes Fragoso against the confusion with Latin glastum, which dyes blue.^[12] It also records cara de gualda “weld face”, a nickname for someone very pale, and Terreros the phrase parecer una gualda “to look like weld”, that is, yellow or pale.^[12][13][4] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1582, in the Río de la Plata, for a root used to dye.^[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 gave the botanical description of a mignonette-family herb that the DLE keeps today.^[7][4]

Timeline

• before 1435 – Juan Alfonso de Baena's poems, in a copy of c. 1454, use color de gualdas.^[9]
• 1462 – the price list of Cuenca names the dye.^[9]
• 1555 – Laguna applies the name, wrongly, to woad: Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1582 – first record from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata.^[14]
• early 17th century – first record of the adjective gualdo.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias has the word, still confused with woad.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin galbus.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. weld, dyer's rocket (Reseda luteola): a herb of the mignonette family with yellow flowers in dense spikes, cultivated for a golden-yellow dye.^[4][1][15]

Adjective

1. Of the yellow colour of weld; the same as gualdo.^[4]

Word family

• gualdo
• gualdado

Related words

• English weld
• French gaude

Usage notes

Cara de gualda is a set phrase for a very pale face.^[4][12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 239
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gualda
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. gualda
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 7302
6. ^ 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. 544
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 506
8. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 855
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. gualda
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. gualda
11. ^ 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. 944
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 86
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, 243
14. ^ a b 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. gualda
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gualda