máscara

Forms

máscara f (plural máscaras)^[1]

Etymology

It is a borrowing whose route is disputed.^[2][3] Corominas thinks it most likely came borrowed from Catalan màscara rather than from Italian maschera, because it appears late in Spanish, and because a direct Arabism would be spelt with ⟨z⟩ in Spanish, while /h/ > /k/ is rare in Castilian Arabisms but usual in Catalan and Italian.^[2][3] The DRAE of 2001, Wiktionary and Corriente give it as from Italian, and Moliner through both Catalan and Italian; the current DLE gives no etymology.^{[4][1][5][6][7]}

Following Dozy, Corominas takes the Romance word from the noun from Arabic مسخرة (masḵara, “buffoon, clown, laughing-stock”), from a verb “to mock”, and thinks it mixed in Europe with Old Occitan masca (“witch”), recorded in Lombard law in 643 and perhaps of Germanic or Celtic origin.^[2][3] Corriente also considers the Arabic source almost certain.^[8] Nocentini instead derives the Italian word from Medieval Latin mascara (“ghost, demon”), from a Germanic *maska.^[9] Bénaben mentions as the other proposal a pre-Roman root meaning “black”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found no medieval Castilian record; his first is Nebrija (c. 1495), mascara o caratula, Latin persona.^[2][3] The CDH has it a little earlier, in the Corónica de Adramón (c. 1492): infynytas máscaras with rich costumes at a festival.^[11] A Salamanca document of 1499 records a mask bought for Saint Sebastian's day for six reales.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “mask”;^[12] “masked person” appears in the Quijote and in Lope and Calderón, and “masquerade, festival of masked people” in Mateo Alemán and Covarrubias.^[2][3] Covarrubias (1611) describes a máscara as the invention brought out at a festival or ball of gentlemen who disguise themselves with masks.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 has the mask, the costume, the beekeeper's mask, the figurative “pretext, disguise” and the masked person.^[13] Today it also names masks against gas or dust and, in medicine, a facial covering used for treatment.^[7][14] In Peru and Chile it is a car's radiator grille.^[15]

Timeline

• 1391 – Catalan mascarat “disguised” at Valencia.^[2][3]
• c. 1492 – máscaras in the Corónica de Adramón.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: mascara o caratula.^[2][11]
• 1499 – a mask bought at Salamanca.^[2]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[16]
• 1539 – the verb enmascarar, after mascarar (1495).^[3]
• 1605 – “masked person” in the Quijote.^[3][2]
• 1817 – mascarada, from Italian through French.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mask: a figure of a human or animal face, or an imaginary one, worn to hide one's identity, to look like someone else, or in theatre and ritual: Se puso una máscara de lobo para la fiesta.^[7][1]
2. A strange or extravagant costume worn as a disguise.^[7]
3. An object that covers the face or part of it to protect or hide it, as a gas mask or a beekeeper's veil.^[7][6]
4. (figurative) A pretext or disguise hiding one's real intentions.^[7]
5. A masked person.^[7]
6. (Peru, Chile) The radiator grille of a car.^[15]

Word family

• enmascarar
• desenmascarar
• mascarilla
• mascarón

Related words

• mascarada
• mascota
• Italian maschera
• Catalan màscara

Usage notes

Quitar a alguien la máscara means to unmask someone, to show them as they really are.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 869
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. máscara
4. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. máscara
5. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. máscara
6. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. máscara
7. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. máscara
8. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 383
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. maschera
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. máscara
11. ^ 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. máscara
12. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 724
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 640
14. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. máscara
15. ^ 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. máscara
16. ^ 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. máscara