lucha

Forms

lucha f (plural luchas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lucha, inherited from Late Latin lucta (“wrestling; struggle”).^[2][3][1] Corominas lists it under the verb luchar, from Latin luctor (“to wrestle”), and dates both to Berceo; the Spanish Wiktionary analyses the noun as a deverbal formation from the verb.^[2][4][5]

The same Late Latin noun is Portuguese luta, Galician loita, Catalan lluita, Old Occitan locha, French lutte, Italian lotta and Romanian luptă.^[6][1] The medieval Portuguese form was Old Galician-Portuguese luita, and Corominas takes the Galician forms with ⟨oi⟩ for its regular development.^[2][7] The length of the Latin ⟨u⟩ is unknown: Italian points to a short vowel, most other Romance languages to a long one, and Old Occitan wavers between lochar and luchar;^[1] Corominas allows for a closing of the vowel before the palatal sound.^[2]

The Latin noun is post-classical, formed on the verb.^[1] Malkiel compares it to the earlier pugna (“fight”).^[1] De Vaan explains the verb as a frequentative built on an unattested participle *lukto- “bent”, from *lug-to-, and compares λύγος (lúgos, “withy, twigs”); the OLD likewise compares a Greek verb for bending the body in wrestling.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Berceo.^[2][4] In the Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, in an 18th-century copy) the saint's fight is meant: Non podió esta lucha seer tan encerrada “this struggle could not be kept so hidden”.^[10] Lanchetas glosses Berceo's word as “quarrel, fight” and figuratively “mortification, penance”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) tells how Hercules went to Africa looking for an opponent con famadia de lucha “eager for a wrestling bout”, adding that lucha is to be understood also as “battle”.^[12] Corominas notes that the sense “two people fighting body to body” has been popular at every period, while the other senses are more literary.^[2] Nebrija distinguished a wrestling of naked athletes from wrestling in general, and Covarrubias defined it as a gymnastic exercise in which two embrace and each tries to throw the other to the ground.^[13][14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades added two figurative senses: the inner battle of reason against the passions, and a dispute of arguments between people, with a quotation from Cervantes's Galatea.^[15] Terreros recorded a weaver's term: each new thread of the weft passed across the warp.^[16] The Academy added “battle, combat” in 1869, and Alemany in 1917 the effort needed to meet the material and moral needs of life.^[17][18] The current dictionary also gives rivalry between opponents and the effort to resist a hostile force or a temptation.^[3] Moliner records lucha de clases, the Marxist term, and the sports lucha libre and lucha grecorromana.^[19]

In the Canary Islands lucha is above all the traditional wrestling of the islands, described as early as 1604.^[20][21] In Mexico hacer la lucha means to make every effort, and luchas are extra earnings got by one's own efforts; in Cuba the word can mean an illicit way of earning money.^[22][23]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo has the word, in the Vida de San Millán.^[2][4][10]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy) recalls the lucha of Ajax.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it of Hercules's wrestling.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin palaestra and gymnasium for kinds of lucha.^[13][2]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[24]
• 1604 – the first description of the wrestling of the Canary Islands.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a gymnastic exercise.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the inner battle of reason and passions.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. lucta”.^[25]
• 1917 – Alemany records the struggle to meet the needs of life.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fight in which two people grapple, each trying to throw the other down;^[1] (sports) wrestling.^[3][19][1]
2. A fight, combat or dispute, also figuratively.^[3][1]
3. Opposition or rivalry between opponents, each trying to prevail: la lucha entre los dos partidos.^[3][19]
4. An effort to resist a hostile force or a temptation, to survive or to reach a goal; a struggle: Su lucha contra la enfermedad duró años.^[3][1]
5. A campaign against a social ill: la lucha contra el tabaco.^[1][19]
6. (Canary Islands) The traditional wrestling of the islands, lucha canaria.^[21]

Related words

• luchador
• luchar
• ineluctable
• Latin luctor
• Portuguese luta

Usage notes

Common set phrases are lucha libre, lucha grecorromana and lucha de clases.^[19][1] Lucha is also a familiar form of the women's names Luz and Lucía, especially in Mexico.^[22][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 706
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. lucha
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luchar
5. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. lucha
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5147
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2076
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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lucha
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. lucha
12. ^ a b 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. lucha
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 373
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1094
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 434
16. ^ 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, 478
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 473
18. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1049
19. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lucha
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. lucha canaria
21. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. lucha
22. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 668
23. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lucha
24. ^ 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. lucha
25. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 653