guerrilla

Forms

guerrilla f (plural guerrillas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish guerra + -illa, a diminutive meaning literally “little war”.^{[2][3][1][4][5]} Its base, guerra, goes back to the West Germanic word Proto-Germanic *werra (“discord, fight”), which Corominas compares with Old High German werra (“strife, confusion”).^[2][6] García de Diego gives the source as Frankish *werra.^[5]

Spanish lent the word to many languages: French guérilla, Italian guerriglia, Portuguese guerrilha and Catalan guerrilla.^[1] The English word guerrilla was taken during the Peninsular War of 1808–1814, when bands of Spanish peasants harassed the occupying army of the French, and records it from 1809.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1535.^[2] The earliest texts in the CDH are the Indies histories of Bartolomé de las Casas and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, where it means a small war or skirmish: Las Casas speaks of the guerrillas with which the natives of Hispaniola tried to defend themselves, and Oviedo of what esta guerrilla de don Enrique “this little war of Don Enrique” had cost over thirteen years.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Golden Age the word meant a minor clash of arms and, figuratively, a minor disagreement; the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes Illescas on the guerrillas that befell a pope in his second year.^[9] It was also the name of a card game for two players, each dealt twenty cards.^[9][10] Terreros glossed it with French petite guerre “little war”.^[11]

The military senses came later: in 1817 the Academy defined it as a party of light troops that scouts ahead and opens the first skirmishes, and in 1843 it added a band of civilians under their own leader, largely independent of the army, that harasses the enemy.^[10][12] Guerrillero, the member of such a band, is recorded from about 1808.^[2] In 1884 the Academy added the line of skirmishers in small groups that covers the front or flanks of an army.^[13] Today the word chiefly means an irregular armed group fighting for political ends, also in the city (guerrilla urbana), and the kind of war it wages.^[14][15] In Chile it names a stone fight between gangs of boys.^[16]

Timeline

• 1535 – the first record according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1535–1557 – Fernández de Oviedo's Historia general y natural de las Indias speaks of the “guerrilla” of Don Enrique on Hispaniola.^[7][8]
• 1543 – an account of the reception of Princess Maria of Portugal at Salamanca uses it for a street brawl.^[7]
• 1553 – Pedro Cieza de León's Crónica del Perú uses it of the wars of the Incas.^[7]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines a minor clash of arms and a card game.^[9]
• c. 1808 – guerrillero is first recorded.^[2]
• 1809 – the English word guerrilla is first recorded.^[6]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as a party of light troops.^[10]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the sense of a band of armed civilians.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the line of skirmishers.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A skirmish, a minor clash.^[3]
2. A party of light troops that scouts ahead and opens the first skirmishes.^[3][15]
3. A band of armed civilians under their own leader, acting with little or no dependence on the army, that harasses the enemy; a guerrilla force: La guerrilla se refugió en la sierra.^[3][1][14]
4. guerrilla warfare, the kind of fighting such bands wage.^[1][14]
5. A stone fight between two groups of boys, a sense the DAMER records in Chile.^[3][16]
6. An old card game for two players.^[3][9]

Word family

• guerrillear
• guerrillero

Related words

• guerra
• guerrear
• guerrero

Usage notes

The phrase en guerrilla means “in small groups” or “scattered, apart from one another”.^[3] Guerra de guerrillas is guerrilla warfare.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guerra
3. ^ 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. guerrilla
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. guerrilla
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7317
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ 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. guerrilla
8. ^ 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. guerrilla
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 94
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 455
11. ^ 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, 249
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 375
13. ^ 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. 547
14. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. guerrilla
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guerrilla
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. guerrilla