herrero

Forms

herrero m (plural herreros, feminine herrera, feminine plural herreras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote ferrero and ferero.^[2] The spelling with h appears in texts of 1492 in the Old Spanish Textual Archive, and Nebrija has herrero.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ferrero, inherited from Latin ferrārius (“blacksmith”), a noun use of an adjective of ferrum (“iron”).^{[5][6][7][1][8]} Its initial /f/ became /h/, later silent, as in hierro, older fierro.^[5]

Corominas says the Latin word survives in all the western Romance languages.^[5] It is Portuguese ferreiro, Galician ferreiro, Asturian ferreru, Aragonese ferrer, Catalan ferrer, Old French ferrier, Italian ferraio and Romanian fierar.^[9][10][1]

The Latin word for iron is a loanword of unidentified source; de Vaan suggests a Phoenician dialect, comparing the Phoenician and Hebrew words for iron.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 937, with the spelling ferrero.^[5][6] The sense was the smith from the start;^[12] Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254) foretells of someone that he will be brave and bold, o sera ferrero “or he will be a smith”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Corominas cites it from the Libro de Apolonio, Juan Ruiz and Don Juan Manuel.^[5] The DEMel finds it often as a surname, Ferrero, as it still is in Herrero.^[2][1] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) defines it as the craftsman who works iron.^[13] The Academy's 1884 edition records herrero de grueso, who makes heavy work such as balconies and ploughs, and the proverb Al herrero, con barbas, y a las letras, con babas: crafts that need strength are learned when grown, letters from early childhood.^[14] The same edition gives a cant sense, a cloak (ferreruelo), which Hidalgo had recorded in 1609.^[14][15]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1522 in Panama.^[16] In Chile and Puerto Rico it has meant a farrier, and in Costa Rica and Colombia it still does.^[17][18] In Mexico it names a water bird, the king rail.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 937 – ferrero in a charter, the first record.^[5][6]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas has ferrero.^[12]
• 1492 – the spelling herrero appears.^[3]
• 1495 – herrería is first recorded.^[6]
• 1522 – first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[16]
• 1609 – Hidalgo records the cant sense “cloak”.^[15]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the word.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the proverb about the bearded smith.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. blacksmith: a person whose trade is working iron: El herrero de la aldea arreglaba también las rejas de los arados.^[7][1]
2. (feminine, herrera) The wife of a blacksmith.^[7]
3. (Costa Rica, Colombia) A farrier.^[18]
4. (Mexico) The king rail, a water bird.^[18]

Adjective

1. (rare) Made of iron.^[7]

Word family

• herrería
• herrerillo
• herreruelo

Related words

• hierro
• herrar
• herramienta
• Portuguese ferreiro
• Latin ferrārius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. herrero
3. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. herrero
4. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 362
5. ^ 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, 355
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hierro
7. ^ 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. herrero
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ferrarius
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c 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. herrero
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 147
14. ^ 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. 562
15. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 182
16. ^ 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. herrero
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 466
18. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. herrero
19. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 593