lechero

Forms

lechero (feminine lechera, masculine plural lecheros, feminine plural lecheras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lactārius (“of milk”), formed from lac (“milk”).^[2][1][3] In Spanish it corresponds to leche with the suffix -ero, and the Wikcionario takes it as such a formation.^[1][4] Wiktionary notes that it is unrelated to the English word lecher.^[1]

The same Latin adjective is Portuguese leiteiro, Galician leiteiro, Asturian llecheru and Catalan lleter.^[3][5] French laitier is lait with the suffix -ier, perhaps corresponding to the Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old Spanish Textual Archive records lechero once, in the Fuero de Ledesma (a manuscript of about 1291–1310).^[6] Corominas lists lechero “containing milk; selling milk” among the derivatives of leche, without a date, and dates the feminine lechera “milk jug” to Alonso de Palencia (1490) and Nebrija.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades has the noun lechero “one who sells milk”, quoting Laguna's Dioscorides on the milkmen of Rome, and the adjective “containing milk or with its properties”.^[9] The 1884 edition added the dairy animal kept for its milk (oveja lechera).^[10]

A figurative sense “grasping, stingy”, found in Andalusia and Colombia, puzzled Corominas, who wondered whether it was a sexual allusion.^[7] Across Latin America the word also means “lucky”, especially at gambling: the DLE records it for Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and DAMER for much of Central and South America.^[2][11][12] In Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela and Colombia a lechero is a slow bus or train that stops everywhere, and in Mexico and El Salvador, jokingly, a woman's lover.^[11] In Ecuador and Cuba it names spurges and other trees with milky sap.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1291–1310 – the Fuero de Ledesma has the form lechero.^[6]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia records lechera “milk vessel”.^[7]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records lechera.^[8]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the milk seller and the adjective.^[9]
• 1775 – the first record from the Americas, at Lima: todos habían sido lecheros.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense of a dairy animal.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. milky: containing milk or having some of its properties.^[2][1]
2. Of or relating to milk; dairy: una granja lechera.^[2][15]
3. Of a female animal: kept for its milk: Compraron dos cabras lecheras.^[2]
4. (colloquial) Grasping, stingy.^[2][16]
5. (Latin America) lucky, especially at gambling.^[2][11]
6. (Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia) Of a bus or train: slow, stopping at every stop.^[11]

Noun

1. A milkman or milkwoman: a person who sells or delivers milk: El lechero pasaba al amanecer.^[2][1]
2. (feminine) A vessel for carrying or serving milk; a milk jug.^[2]

Related words

• leche
• lácteo
• Latin lactarius
• Portuguese leiteiro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. lechero
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lactarius
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. lleter
6. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 615
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. leche
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 375
10. ^ 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. 634
11. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lechero
12. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 177
13. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 319
14. ^ 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. lechero
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. lechero
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lechero