ladrón

Forms

ladrón (feminine ladrona, masculine plural ladrones, feminine plural ladronas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ladron, inherited from Latin latro (“mercenary; brigand”).^[2][3][4][1] The word is common to all the Romance languages except Romanian and Sardinian: Portuguese ladrão, Galician ladrón, Asturian lladrón, Catalan lladre and lladró, Occitan laire, French larron, Italian ladro and ladrone.^[2][5][1] As in other Romance languages, it took over the general sense “thief” from Latin fur, a change already complete in the oldest Spanish documents.^[2]

In early Latin the word was not pejorative: it first meant a hired soldier or bodyguard, and only later a brigand or member of a band of robbers, the sense the Romance languages inherited.^[2][6] The Oxford Latin Dictionary takes it probably from an unattested Ancient Greek λάτρων (látrōn), beside λάτρον (látron, “pay”).^[6] Corominas and Gómez de Silva also relate it to this Greek family of words for hired service.^[2][7] Wiktionary reports that an Indo-European origin has been proposed, but that Beekes rejects it and takes the Latin word as a loan from Greek.^[1] ladrar “to bark” has a separate Latin source.^[8][1]

Intervocalic /t/ became /d/ in the Spanish word, as in the other western Romance languages.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the earliest texts, the Cantar de mio Cid among them, and says it has been in general use at every period.^[2][3] In the Lapidario of Alfonso X (1250–79) a stone protects its bearer so that nil faran mal ladrones ni otros omnes malos “neither robbers nor other evil men will do him harm”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The feminine ladrona is recorded from 1607 (Oudin); Leonese, Portuguese and Catalan used a feminine ladria, Catalan lladria.^[3][2] In 1726 Autoridades gave, besides “one who steals”, the senses of a hunter who strikes at the game from the side and of a channel cut in a mill dam to draw off water.^[10]

Modern Spanish uses ladrón as a general insult and, affectionately, for a rascal or a mischievous child.^[11][4] From the sense “something that takes water” come technical senses for devices that divert part of a flow: a gas burner that takes more than its share and, in Spain, a multiple plug adapter; the DLE also lists an illegal tap on the electricity supply.^[11][4][1] In Cuba it names a pump that draws water directly from the main.^[12] Several Latin American countries have ladrón de cuello blanco “white-collar thief”.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid is among the first texts with the word.^[2][3]
• 1250–79 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses ladrones “robbers”.^[9]
• c. 1440 – first record of the learned latrocinio, taken from Latin.^[3][2]
• 1535 – first record from the Americas in Boyd-Bowman's corpus, from Panama: cueva de ladrones “den of thieves”.^[13]
• 1607 – the feminine ladrona.^[3]
• 1726 – Autoridades adds the senses of a hunter's side blow and of a channel draining a mill dam.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thief or robber: El ladrón escapó por la ventana.^[4][1]
2. (colloquial, affectionate) A rascal; often said of a child.^[4][11]
3. (Spain) A multiple plug adapter, letting several plugs share one socket.^[4][1]
4. An illegal tap on the electricity supply.^[4]
5. A breach or channel cut in a river bank or mill dam to draw off water.^[4][10]

Adjective

1. thievish; that steals.^[4][1]

Word family

• ladronera
• ladronzuelo
• ladronería

Related words

• Latin latro
• Portuguese ladrão

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 555
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ladrón
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ladrón
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4931
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. latrō2
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 413
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. lātrō1
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. ladrón
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4
11. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ladrón
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. ladrón
13. ^ 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. ladrón