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junta

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word junta

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1055 More words from the 11th century
Ultimate origin
Latin iungō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish junta
English junta

Pronunciation

  • /ˈxunta/, [ˈxũn̪.t̪a][1]

Forms

junta f (plural juntas)[1]

Etymology

The DLE derives it from Spanish juntar (“to join, to gather”).[2][3] The BDELC and Vox list it among the derivatives of junto, and García de Diego places it directly under Latin iūncta, the feminine of iūnctus (“joined”), past participle of iungō (“to yoke, to join”).[4][5][6] In Medieval Latin the word meant a joint, a dry measure and a judicial and military assembly.[7]

Its doublet is yunta “pair of draught animals”, a rustic form with a dialectal treatment of the initial consonant.[4][8] The same form means a pair of yoked oxen in Rioja and Aragon, and so do Portuguese junta and Catalan junta.[6] The Latin verb goes back through Proto-Italic *jungō to Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to yoke”).[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word 1055.[4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the Cid asks that the Infantes of Carrión be brought a vistas o a juntas o a cortes “to a meeting, an assembly or the royal court”, so the word already meant a gathering held to settle a matter.[10] The first record without a later copy is the Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235), which fines las juntas.[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used junta for an encounter in battle: in the Libro de Alexandre Darius has fared badly de la primera junta.[10] Covarrubias in 1611 gives both a gathering of people and the contact of two things fitted together, such as two boards.[11] Autoridades defines it as a meeting of several persons in one place to consult and decide a matter.[12]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds junta as a tribunal, as in junta de comercio y moneda, and the side faces of an ashlar.[13] Salvá in 1846 records the Junta Central, the supreme governing junta of deputies from the provinces formed at the beginning of the War of Independence.[14] English borrowed junta in the 1620s for a Spanish council, and the councils formed across Spain in 1808 made it popular.[15] Alemany in 1917 adds the body of persons appointed to run a collective's affairs.[16] In Latin America junta also means the company one keeps, often bad company, the confluence of two rivers, a savings club and a peasants' work party.[17][18] In the Canaries a junta is a party of neighbours working together, recorded from 1885–1888.[19][20]

Timeline

  • 1055 – first record.[4]
  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has a vistas o a juntas o a cortes.[10]
  • c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá, the first record without a later copy.[10]
  • 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria has the spelling yunta for a gathering of enemies.[21]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives junta de dos ríos “confluence”.[22]
  • 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.[23]
  • 1620s – the English word junta is first recorded.[15]
  • 1846 – Salvá records the Junta Central of the War of Independence.[14]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “de juntar”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A meeting of several people to discuss or deal with a matter.[2][1]
  2. Each of the sessions of such a meeting.[2]
  3. A board, council or committee: the persons appointed to run the affairs of a body: la junta directiva.[2][1][24]
  4. (politics) A junta, a group, often military, that takes and holds power.[8][15]
  5. A whole formed by several things joined together.[2]
  6. A joining of two or more things; the place where they join; a joint.[2][1]
  7. A gasket: a piece of compressible material fitted between two pipes or parts to stop a fluid escaping.[2][1]
  8. (construction) The space between adjacent stones or bricks of a wall, usually filled with mortar; each of the faces on either side of it.[2]
  9. (nautical) A splice, a seam.[2]
  10. (Latin America, colloquial) The company one keeps, one's friends: Ese muchacho anda con malas juntas.[17][1]
  11. (Costa Rica) The season when dry, fallen coffee is gathered.[2]

Word family

  • junta directiva
  • junta municipal

Usage notes

Junta is also the feminine of the adjective junto and a form of the verb juntar.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. junta
  3. ^ 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. 620
  4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. junto
  5. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. junta
  6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3625
  7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. juncta
  8. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. junta
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iungō
  10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. junta
  11. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1055
  12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 331
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 510
  14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 639
  15. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 990
  17. ^ 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. junta
  18. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 216
  19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. junta
  20. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. junta
  21. ^ 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. junta
  22. ^ 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. junta
  23. ^ 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. junta
  24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. junta

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Junta.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/junta. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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