hamaca

Forms

hamaca f (plural hamacas)^[1] Early texts also write amaca and amahaca; the Diccionario de Autoridades has amaca as a variant to be written with h.^[2][3][4] Jamaca, with the old aspirate, is the rural form in Venezuela and is also used in Puerto Rico and the Canaries; in central Chile maca is a cradle.^[5][6][7][8] In the countryside of Santo Domingo the h is still pronounced, while educated speech has lost it.^[9]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Taíno hamaca, the word of the Taíno of Hispaniola.^[10][11][12] Friederici assigns it to the Island Arawak of Haiti, not to the Caribs, as had been said, and quotes Las Casas: “Estas llamaban en esta Española hamacas, que son de hechura de hondas” “these they called hamacas in this Hispaniola, and they are shaped like slings”.^[3] Wiktionary traces the Taíno word further back through the Arawakan languages.^[1]

Earlier etymologies were guesses: the Academy's dictionary of 1884 derived it from Carib hamac, supposedly a tree whose bark gave the fibres, and that of 1899 from amaca (“pita”);^[13] Alemany and later editions took it from Dutch hangmat (“hanging bed”), the reverse of the real direction;^[13] Echegaray quoted an Arabic origin, and Covarrubias a Hebrew one.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is the diary of Columbus's first voyage (1492–1493): the natives came to the ships to trade spun cotton and redes en que dormían, que son hamacas “nets in which they slept, which are hammocks”.^[2] The first record in a printed book is Fernández de Enciso's Suma de geografía of 1519, where a dead man is laid en una hamaca, que es la cama d'ellos “in a hammock, which is their bed”.^[20][11][2]

Semantic evolution

The word spread at once through the Spanish Caribbean: in 1513 the ordinances for the Indians of Puerto Rico forbid them to barter their hammocks.^[2][21] Oviedo described it as the bed of the Indians of Hispaniola, a cotton cloth woven partly as a net to keep it cool.^[8] Covarrubias in 1611 still described it as an Indian bed slung between two trees, which kept the sleeper safe from vermin and mosquitoes.^[19] Terreros noted its use at sea, and the Academy's dictionary of 1817 its use as a swing and as a litter carried by two men, adding that some Europeans had taken it from the Indians.^[22][23] Modern Spanish has added a folding deck chair, and in the Southern Cone and parts of Central America and the Caribbean the senses “rocking chair” and “swing”.^[10][24] In Puerto Rico it was also the guard net on the front of a tram.^[25]

From Spanish the word passed into French hamac and Italian amaca, and into English as hamaca in the 1550s, reshaped as English hammock in the 1650s.^[12][13][1] The Dutch and German forms were reshaped by folk etymology as if they meant “hang-mat”, giving the Dutch word above and German Hängematte.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 1492–1493 – the diary of Columbus's first voyage explains the nets the natives sleep in as hamacas.^[2]
• 1513 – hamacas and amacas in Puerto Rico.^[21][2]
• 1519 – Fernández de Enciso's Suma de geografía, Corominas's first record.^[20][11]
• c. 1552 – Las Casas says the word belongs to Hispaniola.^[3]
• 1550s – English borrows the word as hamaca, later hammock.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the hammock as the bed of the Indians.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives a Carib etymology.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hammock: a long net or strong cloth hung by its ends between two trees or posts, used as a bed or a swing, or carried by two people as a litter.^[10][1][26]
2. A folding deck chair: a frame, usually scissor-shaped, holding a cloth that forms seat and back.^[10][26]
3. (Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Central and South America) A rocking chair (mecedora).^[10][24][1]
4. (Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay) A swing (columpio): Los niños se turnaban en la hamaca de la plaza.^[10][24][1]

Word family

• hamacar
• hamaquear

Related words

• French hamac
• English hammock

Usage notes

In Argentina and Uruguay the hammock in the first sense is called hamaca paraguaya, since hamaca alone is the swing or rocking chair.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. hamaca
3. ^ a b c Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 290
4. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 257
5. ^ Alvarado, Lisandro (1921), Glosario de voces indígenas de Venezuela, Caracas: Victoria, p. 171
6. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. hamaca
7. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. hamaca
8. ^ a b Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. s.v. hamaca
9. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 257
10. ^ 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. hamaca
11. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hamaca
12. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. hamaca
13. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ 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. 555
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 517
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 872
17. ^ Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 136
18. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 622
19. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 959
20. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. hamaca
21. ^ 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. hamaca
22. ^ 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, 262
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 461
24. ^ 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. hamaca
25. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 465
26. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hamaca