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machete

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word machete

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1496 an inventory of goods at Olite, in the Navarrese form machit More words from the 15th century
Ultimate origins
Latin *masclusSpanish -ete
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish macho
English macho
Spanish machete
English machete

Pronunciation

  • /maˈt͡ʃete/, [maˈt͡ʃe.t̪e][1]

Forms

machete m (plural machetes)[1] The oldest record, a Navarrese inventory of 1496, has the dialect form machit, with loss of the final vowel; everywhere else the word is machete.[2]

Etymology

It is probably formed from Spanish macho2 + -ete, the base meaning “large hammer for forging iron”.[3][4][5][1] Corominas thinks the first sense was “axe”, kept by macheta “small axe, cleaver” in León, Salamanca and Zamora; from an axe, perhaps a battle-axe, the word passed easily to a short broad sword.[3]

The origin of the base noun is itself uncertain.[6] The DLE derives it from Latin marculus (“small hammer”), an etymology current since Diez;[7] Corominas rejects it, since no form with ⟨rch⟩ is recorded, and takes the noun for a Mozarabic variant of mazo.[7][6][8] He also dismisses Covarrubias's derivation from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα (mákhaira, “short sword”), and the Academy's 1884 dictionary derived the word from Latin machaerium.[3][9][10]

The word passed into Basque martxite (“vine-dresser's pruning knife”), with an ⟨r⟩ due to contamination.[3] Portuguese machete is recorded by Bluteau in 1715.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE's first record is the 1496 inventory of Olite, with the form machit and the sense “a short, heavy, broad-bladed side arm, longer than a dagger and shorter than a sword”.[2] From Puerto Rico in 1512 comes 200 machetes vizcaínos “200 Biscayan machetes”.[11] Corominas, whose first dated record is a document of 1550 describing a machete vizcaíno with silver fittings and a green velvet sheath, notes that the cant name Juan Machiz for the weapon in early 16th-century ballads shows the word was older.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Indies the machete became the tool for clearing a way through forest and scrub: Las Casas has it in the Apologética historia sumaria (1527–1550), and Aguado about 1565 has soldiers carrying machetes and hoes to open the road, with the derivatives machetear and machetero.[2][3][12] Covarrubias described it as a weapon shorter than a sword and longer than a dagger.[9] The dictionaries did not separate the weapon and the tool until Salvá in 1846.[2][13] The Academy's 1884 edition defined both: a broad, heavy, single-edged arm, and a large knife for clearing and for cutting sugar cane.[10]

In Cuba and Puerto Rico the machete is the countryman's tool;[14][15] amarrar machete is said of a son who has come of age and can work with one.[14][15] In Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia a machete is a crib sheet for an examination, and in Uruguay the word means a miser.[16][5] English machete is from Spanish, first in the 1590s in the form macheto.[17]

Timeline

  • 1496 – an inventory of Olite records the Navarrese form machit.[2]
  • 1512 – machetes vizcaínos in Puerto Rico.[11]
  • 1527–1550 – Las Casas uses it of the tool for cutting.[2][18]
  • 1550 – Corominas's first dated record.[3][4]
  • c. 1565 – Aguado records machetear and machetero in Venezuela.[3][12]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from Greek.[9]
  • 1846 – Salvá separates the American tool from the weapon.[13][2]
  • 1884 – the Academy defines the weapon and the large cutting knife.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A machete: a broad, heavy, single-edged side arm, shorter than a sword.[5][1]
  2. A large knife for clearing land, cutting sugar cane and other work: Abrió la trocha a golpes de machete.[5][19]
  3. (colloquial, Argentina, Colombia) A crib sheet for copying in an examination.[5][16]
  4. (Cuba) A machine in cigar factories that cuts tobacco into shreds.[5]
  5. (Nicaragua) Work, a paid occupation.[5]
  6. (Uruguay) A miserly, mean person; also as an adjective.[5][16]
  7. (Venezuela) A capable, bold man; also a good thing; also as an adjective.[5]

Word family

  • machetazo
  • machetear
  • machetero

Usage notes

In the Canaries machete is the male of the salema, a fish.[20][21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. machete
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 746
  4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. machete
  5. ^ 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. machete
  6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 748
  7. ^ a b 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. macho
  8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
  9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1099
  10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 660
  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. machete
  12. ^ a b Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter
  13. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 676
  14. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 522
  15. ^ a b Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo
  16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. machete
  17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  18. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. machete
  19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. machete
  20. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. machete
  21. ^ 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

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Machete.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/machete. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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