jaco

Forms

jaco m (plural jacos)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish jaca (“pony, small horse”).^[2][1][3][4] jaca, older haca, comes from Old French haque, from hack, a shortening of Middle English hakeney, which is named after Hackney, north of London, a place of famous pastures and the chief horse market of the London area.^[3][4][5] The older and more rooted word in Galician and Portuguese is faco.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds jaco “small, poor horse” first in the Academy's dictionary of 1817, which defines it as a small and worthless horse, Latin equulus.^[3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's 1884 edition was the first to give the etymology, from jaca.^[7] In the 20th century the word took on the slang sense “heroin”, as caballo did.^[2][8][9] In Puerto Rico jaco is a small horse with no sense of poor quality.^[10][11] In Andalusia the word is used scornfully of a thin, aged woman.^[12]

Timeline

• 1817 – first record, in the Academy's dictionary.^[3][4][6]
• 1866 – a writer in Bogotá calls a bay horse aco.^[13]
• 1882 – recorded in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from jaca.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, poor-looking horse; a nag (jamelgo).^[2][8][1]
2. (slang) heroin.^[2][8][1]

Related words

• jaca
• hacanea

Usage notes

The DLE has a second jaco, from jaque, for a short-sleeved coat of mail that did not reach below the waist and for a rough goat-hair doublet once worn by soldiers.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) already equated it with the cota of mail, and Autoridades spelt it xaco.^[14][15] Corominas takes the Old French word to be probably from Jacques, a name for a peasant.^[16] In Cuba jaco is also a small turtle, and the DAMER gives it for the green sea turtle.^[10][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. jaco
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 477
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jaca
5. ^ 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. jaca
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 504
7. ^ 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. 612
8. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jaco
9. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. jaco
10. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 483
11. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. jaco
12. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 336
13. ^ 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. haco
14. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1008
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 533
16. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. chaqueta
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jaco