lanero

Forms

lanero (feminine lanera, masculine plural laneros, feminine plural laneras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lānārius (“wool dealer”).^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of lana, and Wiktionary notes that it can also be read as the noun with the suffix -ero.^[4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Catalan llaner, Old French lanier “wool weaver”, Old Occitan lanier and Romanian lânar.^[3][6][1] The Latin noun lāna (“wool”) goes back to Proto-Italic *wlānā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂.^[1][7] De Vaan takes the word to mean “plucked material”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record of the wool trade sense is in the Ordenanzas de Ávila of 1485, which regulate qualesquier laneros o ganaderos “any wool dealers or stockbreeders” who sold wool.^[8] The word is older in the name of a falcon, lanero, recorded from 1386 (see Usage notes).^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The noun first named the dealer in wool: Percyvall glossed it “a woll man” in 1591.^[9][8] Autoridades in 1734 added the store where wool is kept, a sense also found in the feminine lanera.^[10][8] The Academy recorded the adjective “of wool” in 1884, and it is now common in phrases about the wool industry.^[11][8] In the Caribbean lanero names the balsa tree, whose fruit holds a woolly fibre: Alemany recorded it for Cuba in 1917, and it is current in the Dominican Republic.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• 1386 – the falcon name lanero in López de Ayala's book on hunting birds.^[8][5]
• 1485 – the Ordenanzas de Ávila speak of laneros who sell wool.^[8]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a woll man”.^[9]
• 1734 – Autoridades adds the sense “wool store”.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the adjective.^[11]
• 1917 – Alemany records the Cuban tree name.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to wool: el comercio lanero de Castilla.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A dealer in wool.^[2][1]
2. A storehouse for wool.^[2][1]
3. (Dominican Republic) The balsa tree (Ochroma lagopus), whose fruit is covered in a cotton-like fibre.^[13][14]

Related words

• lana
• lanar
• lanudo
• Catalan llaner

Usage notes

Halcón lanero “lanner falcon” is a separate headword in the DLE, which derives it from laniārius (“butcher”), from laniō (“to tear to pieces”).^[2] Corominas instead takes it from lana through lanier: the bird was so named because wool-carders had a reputation as louts, and López de Ayala in 1386 says that such birds are not called falcons but villanos.^[4][8] The REW finds the falcon name unclear in sense.^[3]

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 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. lanero
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4876
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 571
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lana
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3741
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lanero
9. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 161
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 358
11. ^ 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. 629
12. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1006
13. ^ 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. lanero
14. ^ 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. lanero