judío

Forms

judío (feminine judía, masculine plural judíos, feminine plural judías)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Iūdaeus (“Jewish; a Jew”).^[2][3][4][1] Latin took it from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaîos), which comes from Biblical Hebrew יהודי (yĕhūdī) “of Judah”, a derivative of יְהוּדָה (Yəhūḏā, “Judah”), the name of Jacob's son and of his tribe.^[4][1][5] Gómez de Silva brings the Greek form through Aramaic.^[6]

Corominas sees a slight learned influence in the keeping of the -d-, which usually falls before the stress; -aeus became -ío regularly, as in dios.^[2] The same Latin word is Portuguese judeu (clearly learned), Catalan jueu, Occitan jusieu, Italian giudeo and French juif.^[2][7] Old Castilian and Aragonese also had jodio, and Pyrenean Aragonese has chodigo.^[2][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is found from the beginnings of the language, in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) and in Berceo.^[2][3] Alfonso X's Lapidario tells how the king got the book in Toledo from a Jew, and had another Jew, his physician Yhuda Mosca, read it.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) defines the noun as a follower of the old law of Moses, quoting the Fuero Real; it also records it as the name boys gave to those who played trumpets in Holy Week processions, and as an insult used in anger.^[10] The Academy added the figurative sense “miser, usurer” in 1869; the current dictionary keeps it, marked as offensive and discriminatory.^[11][4] The historical judío de señal was a Jew allowed to live among Christians who had to wear a badge on his clothes.^[4][12]

The feminine judía “bean” is recorded from the 16th century;^[2][3] Corominas weighs several explanations and suspects that it was taken from judihuelo, a popular reshaping of a Mozarabic descendant of Latin phaseolus.^[2][3] In Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic judío names the smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani), a black bird.^[13][14] Suárez explains the name from its call.^[13][14][15] In the Dominican Republic it is also said of an unbaptised child.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the word.^[2][3]
• 1220–1250 – the derivatives judería and judaísmo are recorded.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario mentions the king's Jewish physician.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin iudaeus and hebraeus.^[17]
• 1518 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme: moros e judíos.^[18]
• 1535 – the feminine judía for a kind of bean, in Fernández de Oviedo.^[2]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the noun, the adjective and the insult.^[10]
• 1836 – Pichardo records the Cuban bird name.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin and Hebrew.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Jewish: of the Hebrew people or of Judaism (judaísmo); also as a noun, a Jew: Visitamos el antiguo barrio judío de la ciudad.^[4][19][1]
2. Of or from Judea, the ancient land; as a noun, a native of Judea.^[4][1]
3. (offensive) Avaricious, usurious.^[4][20]

Noun

1. (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) The smooth-billed ani, a black bird of the cuckoo family.^[13][16][1]

Word family

• judería
• judiada
• judión

Related words

• judía
• judaico
• judaísmo
• judaizar
• Portuguese judeu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 533
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. judío
4. ^ 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. judío
5. ^ 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. judeu
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 407
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4598
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3610
9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. judío
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 325
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 448
12. ^ 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. 618
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. judío
14. ^ a b c Pichardo, Esteban (1836), Diccionario provincial de voces cubanas, Matanzas: Imprenta de la Real Marina, p. 150
15. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 311
16. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. judío
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 365
18. ^ 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. judío
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. judío
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. judío