guitarrista

Forms

guitarrista m or f by sense (plural guitarristas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish guitarra + -ista.^[2][1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of the noun, first recorded in 1335, which is from Arabic قيثارة (qīṯāra), from Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára, “cithara, lyre”).^[3][4][1] Echegaray compares French guitariste, Italian chitarrista and Catalan guitarrista.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Romance of Pedro Liñán de Riaza of 1596, which says of guitar players: los señores guitarristas no es del todo mala gente, “the gentlemen guitarists are not altogether bad people”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Cervantes uses the word twice in 1615: in La gran sultana and in the second part of the Quijote: todos o los más son guitarristas y copleros, “all or most of them are guitar players and rhymesters”.^[6] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) defines a professional guitarist in the companies of actors and, secondly, anyone who plays the guitar with skill.^[7][2] Terreros in 1787 adds the maker or seller of guitars.^[8][2] The Academy made the word of common gender, for a man or a woman, in 1884.^[9]

Older synonyms are guitarrero and guitarra itself, used for the player.^[2] In the Americas Ecuador and Bolivia have used it for a lover of revelry, first recorded in 1933, and Bolivia for someone who comes to a party uninvited.^[2][10][11] In Besses's slang dictionary of 1905 a guitarrista is a swindler who worked the trick called timo de la guitarra.^[12]

Timeline

• 1596 – first record, in a Romance by Pedro Liñán de Riaza.^[2][6]
• 1615 – Cervantes uses it in the second part of the Quijote.^[6]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[7][2]
• 1787 – Terreros adds the sense “maker or seller of guitars”.^[8][2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary makes it a noun of common gender.^[9]
• 1933 – first record of the sense “lover of revelry”, in Ecuador and Bolivia.^[2]
• 1966 – first record in our corpus of American texts, in Cuba.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A guitarist: a person who plays the guitar (guitarra), especially as a profession: Su hermana es guitarrista en una orquesta de tango.^[14][15][1]
2. (Ecuador, Bolivia) A lover of revelry (juerga).^[10][2]
3. (Bolivia, colloquial) A gatecrasher: someone who turns up at a party without being invited.^[11][2]

Related words

• guitarrero
• guitarrón
• cítara

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. guitarrista
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guitarra
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 278
5. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 605
6. ^ 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. guitarrista
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 98
8. ^ 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, 252
9. ^ 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. 549
10. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 461
11. ^ 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. guitarrista
12. ^ Besses, Luis (c. 1905), Diccionario de argot español o lenguaje jergal gitano, delincuente profesional y popular, Barcelona: Manuel Soler, p. 92
13. ^ 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. guitarrista
14. ^ 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. guitarrista
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial