jarro

Forms

jarro m (plural jarros)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish jarra, with the masculine ending.^[2][3][1] jarra is first recorded in 1251 and is from Andalusian Arabic جرة (ǧárra), from Arabic جرة (ǧarra, “earthen jar”).^[2][4][5] Corriente lists this word and jarrón among the Castilian derivatives of that Arabic word, which also gave Catalan gerra, Galician xarra, Italian giara and the Catalan masculine gerro.^[5] Covarrubias explained the word as if from Latin garum, the fish sauce, because such vessels held fish in brine.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it to about 1400, and DEMel finds it in a glossary of the late 14th century.^[2][7] The CDH's first sure hit is in the Crónica de Juan II (1406–1411): vn jarro con ascuas de candela “a jug with burning embers”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija distinguished the wine jug, the water jug and the small jug, and glossed the word with Latin urceus.^[9][10] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the proverb Hidalgo pobre, jarro de plata, y olla de cobre, because silver and copper dent but do not break.^[6] Autoridades (1734) defined it as a vessel like the jarra with only one handle and usually a spout, and recorded tener jarro de plata for a dead man whose long knell showed he had been rich.^[11] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added an Aragonese sense, a person, especially a woman, who shouts and talks without purpose, and the phrase echarle a uno un jarro de agua, to leave someone disconcerted.^[12] In 1884 the phrase took its present sense, to take away someone's hope or enthusiasm all at once.^[13][3] In Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay it is an enamelled metal mug for breakfast, and in Costa Rica also a person's face.^[14]

Timeline

• 1251 – first record of jarra.^[2]
• c. 1400 – first record of jarro.^[2]
• 1406–1411 – the Crónica de Juan II has vn jarro con ascuas.^[8]
• 1513 – first record in the Americas, in a price list from Puerto Rico.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb about the poor hidalgo's silver jug.^[6]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the Aragonese sense and the phrase with jarro de agua.^[12]
• 1884 – the phrase gets its modern sense of dashing a hope.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jug or pitcher: a vessel of earthenware, china, glass or metal like a jarra but with a single handle (asa).^[3][1]
2. The quantity of liquid a jug holds: Se bebió medio jarro de leche.^[3]
3. (Aragon) A measure of wine, an eighth of a cántaro.^[16]
4. (Aragon, colloquial) A person, especially a woman, who talks a lot, shouting and without sense.^[16][12]
5. (Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay) An enamelled metal mug used at breakfast.^[14]

Word family

• jarrero
• jarrón

Related words

• jarra

Usage notes

A jarros means “in torrents”, of rain, as a cántaros does, and echarle a alguien un jarro de agua fría means to dash someone's hopes or enthusiasm.^[3][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jarra
3. ^ 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. jarro
4. ^ 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. jarra
5. ^ a b Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. algerra
6. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1012
7. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. jarro
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. jarro
9. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 365
10. ^ 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. jarro
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 318
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 506
13. ^ 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. 614
14. ^ 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. jarro
15. ^ 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. jarro
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jarro