guerra

Forms

guerra f (plural guerras)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote gerra, guera and guiera;^[2][3] gerra occurs in the manuscript of the Cid.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish guerra, borrowed from Medieval Latin werra, which is from Frankish *werʀu (“confusion; quarrel”).^[1][4][5] The BDELC and García de Diego name a Germanic, Frankish or West Germanic *werra (“discord, quarrel”), and the DLE and the BDELC compare Old High German werra (“strife, confusion”).^[4][6][5] The REW holds that Spanish, Catalan, Occitan and Portuguese took the word from French guerre.^[7] Goldschmidt asked how the Spanish word was to be explained, warning against conclusions drawn from the fragmentary Gothic vocabulary.^[8]

The Medieval Latin word is first recorded in 858.^[1] By the 9th century Medieval Latin texts used the Frankish word instead of Latin bellum, as Roman armies were Germanised and then replaced by Frankish military organisation.^[9] VOX says that it replaced the Latin word in all the Romance languages except Romanian.^[10] It is Portuguese guerra, Catalan guerra and Italian guerra.^[6][7] Gómez de Silva traces the Germanic word to Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to confuse”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word to 1037.^[4] The Cid (c. 1140) describes a hill above Monreal that “fears no war from any side”, non teme guerra, sabet, a nulla part.^[12] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) speaks of the newborn who will be lord en pace i en guerra “in peace and in war”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has andar en guerra “to be at enmity”, dar guerra “to make war on” and haber guerra con “to wage war against”.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 distinguished guerra, the whole period until peace is made, from batalla, a single engagement, and thought the word might come from Italian gara or from Hebrew.^[14] The 1734 Autoridades added the art and profession of war (gente de guerra) and, metaphorically, the opposition of one thing to another.^[15] The Academy derived it from Old High German werra “quarrel” in 1884, and then listed a game of billiards among its senses.^[16]

The derivatives guerrero (1076) and guerrear (c. 1140) are early;^[4] guerrilla, a small war, is from 1535, and guerrillero from about 1808.^[4] In the Americas guerra names an itch of the groin in El Salvador and a card game in Uruguay.^[17]

Timeline

• 1037 – first record, according to the BDELC.^[4]
• 1076 – the derivative guerrero.^[4]
• 1115 – the CORDE's first hit, as the DICCA-XV reports it.^[18]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[12]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España has andar en guerra.^[13]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme: hazerles guerra.^[19]
• 1535 – the derivative guerrilla.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias distinguishes guerra from batalla.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives an etymology, from Old High German.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A breakdown of peace between two or more powers.^[5]
2. war, warfare: armed struggle between nations or between factions of one nation: La guerra duró tres años.^[5][1]
3. Rivalry, conflict between people.^[5][20]
4. A struggle or fight, also in a moral sense.^[5]
5. The opposition of one thing to another.^[5]
6. (obsolete) Used as an interjection, a battle cry.^[5]
7. (El Salvador) An itch, especially of the groin;^[17] (Uruguay) a card game.^[17]

Word family

• guerrear
• guerrero
• guerrilla
• guerrillero
• aguerrido
• posguerra

Related words

• bélico
• French guerre
• Italian guerra

Usage notes

Set phrases include guerra civil and guerra abierta “declared hostility”, both already in the Academy's dictionary of 1884.^[16][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. guerra
3. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. guerra
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guerra
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. guerra
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7317
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9524a
8. ^ Goldschmidt, Moritz (1887), Zur Kritik der altgermanischen Elemente im Spanischen, Bonn: Carl Georgi, p. 56
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. guerra
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 339
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. guerra
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. guerra
14. ^ 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. 947
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 93
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 547
17. ^ 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. guerra
18. ^ 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. guerra
19. ^ 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. guerra
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guerra