leñador

Forms

leñador m (plural leñadores, feminine leñadora, feminine plural leñadoras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it lennador, with the old spelling ⟨nn⟩ for /ɲ/: Alfonso X's General estoria has the plural lennadores.^[2] The feminine is leñadora;^[3][4] Domínguez noted in 1846 that the word was used much more as a masculine.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lignātor (“one who gathers firewood”), according to the DLE and Wiktionary.^[3][1] Corominas lists it instead among the derivatives of leña “firewood”, which continues ligna, the plural of lignum (“wood, timber”).^[5][6]

The Latin noun is formed from the verb lignor (“to gather firewood”) with the agent suffix -tor, and the verb from the noun for wood.^[1][7] Caesar and Livy use it of soldiers sent out to fetch wood.^[1][7][8] The cognate Portuguese lenhador is recorded before 1632;^[9] Houaiss derives it within Portuguese from the verb lenhar.^[9] The 19th-century etymologists compared Catalan llenyater and Italian legnaiuolo, formed with other suffixes.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's General estoria (c. 1275) has the plural lennadores, the first record DEMel quotes from a text directly; it also lists the word in the glossaries of Calila e Dimna (1251).^[2] The glossaries of the Escorial and Toledo, of about 1400, use it to translate Latin lignator, and Nebrija explains it as the man who goes for firewood.^[5][6][12]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1734) defined the leñador as the one who cuts firewood or lives by selling it, quoting the Inca Garcilaso's Comentarios on woodcutters, water carriers and gardeners.^[13] The Academy's dictionaries of 1843 and later kept the two activities together, until the 1884 edition split them into two senses, the cutter and the seller of firewood.^[14][15] In Mexico the word appears from 1541, of the woodcutters who brought firewood to the temples.^[16] Today it names above all the woodcutter or lumberjack who fells trees.^[17][1]

Timeline

• 1251 – DEMel lists the word in the glossaries of Calila e Dimna.^[2]
• c. 1275 – lennadores in Alfonso X's General estoria.^[2]
• c. 1400 – the Escorial and Toledo glossaries render Latin lignator with it, the first record Corominas gives.^[5][6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: “the one who goes for firewood”, Latin lignator.^[12]
• 1541 – first record in Mexico.^[16]
• 1734 – Autoridades: one who cuts firewood or lives by selling it.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the cutter and the seller of firewood as two separate senses.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woodcutter or lumberjack: a person whose work is cutting firewood or felling trees: Los leñadores bajaron del monte con los troncos atados al mulo.^[3][1][17]
2. A person who sells firewood (leña).^[3][1]

Related words

• leña
• leñar
• leño
• Latin lignātor
• Portuguese lenhador

Usage notes

Leñador furtivo is an illegal logger.^[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 Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. leñador
3. ^ 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. leñador
4. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1079
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 631
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. leña
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lenhador
10. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 368
11. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 103
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 370
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 385
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 435
15. ^ 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. 638
16. ^ a b 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. leñador
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. leñador