huebra

Forms

huebra f (plural huebras)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write uebra and huuebra.^[2] Nebrija has uebra.^[3] Andalusia has huerba and Castile güebra.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish huebra, inherited from Latin opera (“work, labour”).^[5][1][6] The Latin noun is the neuter plural of opus (“work”), taken as a feminine singular.^[1]

It is the older form of obra, which the BDELC dates about 1250.^[6] Wiktionary explains the lack of the diphthong in the newer form by the influence of the verb obrar.^[1] The same Latin word is Portuguese obra, Catalan obra, Occitan òbra, French œuvre and Italian opera.^[7][6] The Italian word came back into Spanish as ópera, a doublet of this word.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the plural huebras for the ornamental work of the tents.^[8][6] In the 13th century it meant work in general: the Liber regum (c. 1194–1211) tells how Nebuchadnezzar threw down toda la huebra que fizo el rei Salamon en el temple, and the Fazienda de Ultra Mar renders the commandment as Vi dias labraras e faras toda tu huebra, “six days you shall labour and do all your work”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From early on the word was used especially for the work done in a day, the sense of opera in the Latin of the Middle Ages, and then for the land that can be worked in that time.^[6][9] The Fuero de Cáceres (c. 1234–1275) already fixes a fine por las huebras of a farmhand.^[8] As obra took over the general sense, huebra was left with these farming senses.^[6] Nebrija in 1492 glossed Latin opera as la uebra de un dia and centuria as a hundred uebras of land.^[3]

The Autoridades of 1734 defined it as the land a yoke of oxen ploughs in a day, also called obrada, and as the pair of mules with a lad hired for the day, quoting Herrera's Agricultura and Guevara; it noted the Aragonese sense “fallow land”.^[10] In the slang of the 17th-century underworld a huebra was a pack of cards, a sense the Academy recorded as late as 1899.^[11][12] In Leonese it means communal work done by the neighbours of a village.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has huebras (in a 14th-century copy).^[8][6]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber regum uses huebra for Solomon's work on the temple.^[8][2]
• c. 1234–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres uses the plural huebras for days of farm work.^[8]
• c. 1250 – obra appears beside it.^[6]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin opera as la uebra de un dia.^[3]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's slang vocabulary: huebra, a pack of cards.^[11]
• 1734 – the Autoridades gives the measure of land, the hired team and the Aragonese “fallow”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The area of land ploughed in one day; a jugerum or yugada.^[5][1][14]
2. A pair of mules with a farmhand, hired to work for a whole day.^[5][14]
3. Arable land that is ploughed but not sown; fallow land (barbecho).^[5][14][15]
4. (León) Communal work done by the neighbours of a village (hacendera).^[13]
5. (obsolete, underworld slang) A pack of playing cards.^[11][12]

Related words

• obra
• obrar
• obrada
• ópera
• Latin opera

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. huebra
3. ^ a b c 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. huebra
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4693
5. ^ 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. huebra
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. obrar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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. huebra
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. opera
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. huebra
11. ^ a b c 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. huebra
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 538
13. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. huebra
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huebra
15. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 244