jacal

Forms

jacal m (plural jacales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Classical Nahuatl xahcalli, a word for a hut, which the Academy and the Mexican dictionaries write xacalli.^[1][2][3] Gómez de Silva and Robelo explain it as a compound of xāmitl (“adobe”) and calli (“house”), so “adobe house”.^[4][5][1] Gómez de Silva's later dictionary also gives a second explanation, from a form meaning “sand house”, built on the word for sand and the same word for house.^[6] Friederici lists it among the Nahuatl words of the chronicles, for the Indian hut of reeds, canes or branches roofed with palm leaves or grass, and the war tent of the Aztecs.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boyd-Bowman's earliest records are from 1562: in Puebla una casa de jacal en el çerro “a jacal house on the hill”, and in Yucatán un jacal grande de paja “a large straw jacal”.^[8] In 1571 Alonso de Molina's Nahuatl dictionary glossed the Nahuatl word as choça, bohío o casa de paja “hut, cabin or straw house”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always meant a poor rustic dwelling, usually of adobe or canes with a straw roof.^[2][3] In the 17th-century Mexican chronicles it is the hut or shelter of the Indians, and also a large shelter put up for an army.^[10] The Academy first listed it in 1884, as a Mexican word with the etymology “Del mej. xacalli”.^[11] Santamaría records it in Venezuela too, and Mexican phrases such as no tener jacal donde meterse, to be very poor.^[3] DAMER gives it for Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.^[12] In New Mexico it names a small hut whose walls are rows of upright poles filled in with mud.^[13]

Timeline

• 1562 – the first records, in Puebla and Yucatán.^[8]
• 1571 – Molina's Nahuatl dictionary uses the Nahuatl form in a Spanish phrase.^[9]
• before 1600 – the first hit in the CDH, in a play by González de Eslava written in Mexico.^[10]
• 1667 – Combés uses the word for a shelter in the Philippines, in his history of Mindanao.^[10]
• 1884 – first in the Academy's dictionary, as a Mexican word.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Mexico, Central America, Venezuela) A hut or humble choza, usually built of adobe or carrizo with a straw roof: Vivían en un jacal a la orilla del río.^[2][12][1]

Word family

• jacalero

Usage notes

Santamaría rejects the forms jacale for this word and jacal for chacal “jackal”, which some badly copied dictionaries had printed.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. jacal
3. ^ a b c d Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 134
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. jacal
5. ^ Robelo, Cecilio A. (1904), Diccionario de aztequismos, o sea catálogo de las palabras del idioma náhuatl, azteca o mexicano, introducidas al idioma castellano bajo diversas formas, Cuernavaca: Imprenta del autor, p. s.v. jacal
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. s.v. jacal
7. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 321
8. ^ a b c 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. jacal
9. ^ 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. jacal
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. jacal
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. 611
12. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jacal
13. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 108