hormiguero

Forms

hormiguero m (plural hormigueros)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish hormiga + -ero, the place where ants live.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary derives it instead from Vulgar Latin *formīcārium, from Latin formīca (“ant”).^[1] The same formation is Portuguese formigueiro, Catalan formiguer, Italian formicaio and Romanian furnicar.^[1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *mormīkā- and is related to the words for “ant” in Celtic, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Slavic and Germanic, such as Ancient Greek μύρμηξ (múrmēx).^[5] De Vaan explains the irregular forms by taboo distortion, and the Latin ⟨f⟩ perhaps by dissimilation of an older /m/.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor (1325–1335, in a copy of about 1400) the ants come out of their formigueros at harvest time and carry grain back to them.^[6] The Libro del conocimiento of about 1350 tells of giant ants by a river whose anthills hold gold.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glosses it with Latin formicarum cavus “ants' hole”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades has the hole where ants breed and shelter, and by comparison any great crowd of people or things in motion.^[7][8] In thieves' slang it meant a petty thief or a cardsharp with loaded dice.^[9][10] The Academy added the farming sense, a heap of weeds covered with earth and burnt to manure the field, in 1884, and the bird name “wryneck” in 1899.^[11][12] Corominas weighs the view that the farming sense comes from a word for “oven” altered by hormiga, and judges it possible but very uncertain, since the heap looks like an anthill.^[2]

As an adjective it means “of ants” or “ant-eating”, as in oso hormiguero “anteater”.^[1][13] In Spanish America hormiguero is also a hoof disease of horses.^[14][15] Santamaría records it alone for the giant anteater.^[16]

Timeline

• 1325–1335 – first record, in Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor.^[6]
• c. 1352 – the place name Osorno del formiguero in the Becerro de las behetrías.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records hormiguero.^[7][3]
• 1526 – Fernández de Oviedo describes the osso hormiguero.^[6]
• 1549 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's slang vocabulary records it for a petty thief.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the farming sense.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “wryneck”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An anthill, the nest where ants live: Los niños observaban la entrada del hormiguero.^[13][1]
2. An ant colony.^[13][1]
3. (colloquial) A place swarming with people: La plaza era un hormiguero de turistas.^[13][1]
4. The wryneck, a bird; torcecuello.^[13]
5. (agriculture) A heap of weeds covered with earth and burnt to manure fallow land.^[13]

Adjective

1. Of ants; ant-eating, as in oso hormiguero “anteater”.^[1][13]

Related words

• hormiga
• hormiguear
• oso hormiguero
• Latin formīca
• Portuguese formigueiro

Usage notes

The DRAE of 2001 also had an adjective hormiguero “of the skin disease called hormiga”, which the current DLE has dropped.^[18] In the Canaries hormiguero is a tingling of the skin, and in Gran Canaria a nagging cough.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 394
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hormiga
4. ^ 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. hormiguero
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ 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. hormiguero
7. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 363
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 178
9. ^ 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. s.v. hormiguero
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 394
11. ^ 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. 576
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 536
13. ^ 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. hormiguero
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 469
15. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. hormiguero
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 100
17. ^ 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. hormiguero
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. hormiguero
19. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. hormiguero