hacanea

Forms

hacanea f (plural hacaneas)^[1][2] Old Spanish texts of the 15th century also write facanea and acanea.^[3] García de Diego records facanea in old Castilian and Portuguese.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French haquenée, which comes from Middle English hakeney, from the name of Hackney, a place near London famous for its horses.^[1][5] DICCA-XV also derives it from the French word and its English place name.^[6] Corominas traces the Middle English word, which is also the source of English hackney, to Hackney in Middlesex, then an area of horse pastures near Smithfield, the chief horse market of the London region; he dates the English word from 1292, the French one from 1367.^[7][8] The DHLF dates the French word about 1360 and the English first in a Latin form of 1292; it notes that Guiraud thought the English word had been borrowed from the French, from a verb haquener that he linked with the swaying gait of the amble.^[9]

The shorter Spanish jaca, old haca, comes from the same English name, through a shortened form.^[7][8][4] Pedro de Alcalá gave a Mozarabic word as the translation of hacanea, a sign of how early the horse name took root in Spain.^[7]

Covarrubias called it an Italian word for horses brought from England and Poland;^[2][10] Alemany derived it from Dutch.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record without a later copy is the account of the meeting at Tordesillas of 1439, where the king rides out en una acanea blanca “on a white hackney”.^[3] The Victorial (1431–1449, in a copy of about 1500) lists facaneas among the war horses and coursers of a household.^[3] Corominas's first record is Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary of 1490, where it is the horse that goes at an easy amble without tiring its rider.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The word named a fine ambling horse of foreign breed: Nebrija gave it as Latin equus britannicus, and Covarrubias said that hacaneas were brought from England, Poland and Frisia.^[11][7] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a horse somewhat larger than a haca and smaller than a full horse, and quotes the Quijote: Picando a su hacanea con un aguijón.^[2] In the Americas it is recorded in 1524 in Santo Domingo, for the freight of a hackney.^[12] Salvá noted in 1846 that it was hardly used any more.^[13] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 defined it as a jaca de dos cuerpos, a large hack, and the DLE now as a hack larger and more prized than the ordinary one but smaller than a horse.^[14][1]

Timeline

• 1431–1449 – the Victorial, known from a copy of about 1500, writes facaneas.^[3]
• 1439 – the account of the Seguro de Tordesillas has acanea.^[3]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary, Corominas's first record.^[7][8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin equus britannicus.^[11][6]
• 1524 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1846 – Salvá calls the word almost out of use.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary defines it as a jaca de dos cuerpos.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hackney: a jaca or hack larger and more prized than the ordinary kind but smaller than a horse.^[1][15]

Related words

• jaca
• French haquenée
• English hackney

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. hacanea
2. ^ 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, 110
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hacanea
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3190
5. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. hacanea
6. ^ 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. hacanea
7. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 477
8. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jaca
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. haquenée
10. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 869
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 360
12. ^ 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. hacanea
13. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 573
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 515
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hacanea