landre

Forms

landre f (plural landres)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin glandinem (“acorn”), a late by-form of Latin glāns (“acorn; glans”).^[2][3][4][1] Latin writers such as Avienus and the pseudo-Cyprian, inscriptions and glossaries have this form.^[2] Corominas rules out glandula (“little acorn; gland”) as the source because of the final ⟨-e⟩, which matches the treatment of the ending in liendre, sangre and ingle; the loss of the ⟨g⟩ of ⟨gl-⟩ is regular, as in lirón and ovillo.^[2] García de Diego derives it from that diminutive instead.^[5]

Medieval Spanish also had lande (“acorn”), from the classical word, still used in Álava; it corresponds to Portuguese lande, Galician lande, Asturian llande, Catalan gla, French gland, Italian ghianda and Romanian ghindă.^[2][6][7]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷelh₂- (“acorn”); it is cognate with Ancient Greek βάλανος (bálanos) and Lithuanian gìlė.^[8][1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Libro de los animales que cazan (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century), where a falcon's crop shows un nudo cumo landre “a knot like a swelling”, a bag full of worms.^[10][11] Corominas dated it to about 1400, when the Glosario de Palacio uses it for a swelling in the groin.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a swelling or bubo, compared to an acorn; from there the word came to mean the plague whose sign was such swellings.^[2] A medical treatise records gran mortandad de landres enlas ingles y enlos sobacos “a great death from swellings in the groin and armpits”.^[10] A charter of 1348 still uses landre for the acorns gathered in the woods.^[10]

From “lump” the word passed to a hidden pocket of money sewn into clothing, a sense Autoridades quotes from the Guzmán de Alfarache.^[2][12] In the slang of the underworld it was a bundle of money.^[13][14] Curses such as mala landre te coma wished the plague on someone;^[4][2] Cervantes has dar a la mala landre.^[4][2] In Judeo-Spanish the plague word became landra.^[2]

Timeline

• 1250 – the Libro de los animales que cazan compares a knot in a falcon's crop to a landre.^[10]
• c. 1275 – the Libro de los caballos has landres in horses.^[10]
• 1348 – the Ordenamiento de Alcalá uses it for acorns.^[10]
• c. 1400 – the Glosario de Palacio has it for a swelling in the groin.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes the landre of the plague from the landres of the neck.^[15][2]
• 1521 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes it as a contagious swelling of the groin, armpits or throat.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the hidden money pocket.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy marks the sense “Levantine plague” as obsolete.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. An inflamed, acorn-sized swelling of a lymph node, usually in the neck, armpits or groin; also figurative.^[4][1][19]
2. (historical) A hidden pocket made in a cloak or garment to carry money unseen.^[4][1][19]
3. (obsolete) The bubonic plague.^[4][19]

Word family

• landrecilla

Related words

• glándula
• glande
• Latin glāns
• Portuguese lande

Usage notes

The curse mala landre te coma (or te mate) expresses contempt or ill will towards the person addressed.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 574
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. landre
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. landre
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3096
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. landre
11. ^ 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. landre
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 358
13. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 418
14. ^ Salillas, Rafael (1896), El delincuente español: el lenguaje, Madrid: Victoriano Suárez
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
17. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1066
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos