lingote

Forms

lingote m (plural lingotes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French lingot.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas calls the Spanish and the Portuguese lingote recent loans of no interest for the etymology.^[2]

The French word is of uncertain origin.^[2][6] Corominas finds it frequent from the early 15th century, with an example of about 1327 reported by Bloch; the DHLF dates it to 1392 and calls its origin unknown.^[2][6] The proposal put forward by Diez and defended by Skeat derives it from English ingot, with the article l’ grown onto it.^[2][5][6] The English word appears twice in Chaucer, about 1386, as “mould for casting metal”, and only from 1560 as “bar of metal”; this chronology made the editors of the NED doubt the English origin.^[2] It may be formed from in and Old English goten (“poured, cast”), the past participle of geotan (“to pour”), which matches German Einguss “casting mould”, but Corominas notes phonetic difficulties and leaves the question to specialists.^[2][6] He rejects a derivation from Latin lingua (“tongue”) on both meaning and form;^[1] Wiktionary mentions a diminutive of Old Occitan lenga (“tongue”) as the other possibility.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC take the first record from Terreros's dictionary (1765–1783); the Academy admitted the word in 1869, not yet in 1843.^[2][3] The earliest text in the CDH, Francisco Xavier de Viana's diary (1789–1794, Uruguay), uses it of iron ballast moved aboard ship: pasando de la escotilla mayor a Santa Bárbara cuarenta lingotes “moving forty ingots from the main hatch to the powder room”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word was both nautical and metallurgical: Salvá (1846) defines it as a large piece of unforged iron or lead and as a cast-iron block with a hole at one end used to make up a ship's stowage, and Domínguez gives the ballast sense with the older names galápago and eslingote.^[8][9] Metallurgical texts speak of iron and lead en lingotes from the 1850s and 1860s.^[7] The Academy's definition of 1869, a bar of crude metal, especially iron, silver, gold or platinum, and the ballast bars, is still the core of the DLE's entry, which adds the solid mass obtained by pouring molten metal into a mould.^[10][4] In the Americas gold en polvo o en lingotes is recorded in Havana in 1817.^[11]

Timeline

• 1765–1783 – Terreros, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1789–1794 – Viana's diary has forty iron lingotes as ballast.^[7]
• 1817 – in Havana, gold en polvo o en lingotes.^[11]
• 1846 – Salvá and Domínguez define the metal piece and the ballast block.^[8][9]
• 1869 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[10][2]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from French.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ingot: a bar or block of crude metal, especially iron, silver, gold or platinum: El banco guardaba diez lingotes de plata en su cámara.^[4][13]
2. (nautical) Each of the iron bars or blocks used to balance the stowage of a ship.^[4][13]
3. The solid mass obtained by pouring molten metal into a mould.^[4]

Related words

• French lingot
• English ingot

Usage notes

Domínguez notes that the ballast block was also called galápago and earlier eslingote.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 662
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lingote
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. lingot
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
8. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
9. ^ a b c 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
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
11. ^ 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. lingote
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos