madriguera

Forms

madriguera f (plural madrigueras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *matricaria, derived from Latin mātrīx (“breeding female; womb”).^[2][1][3][4] Corominas calls it the popular doublet of the learned botanical name matricaria.^[3][4] Wiktionary gives the Late Latin form without an asterisk and with the sense “related to the womb”.^[1] The same word is Portuguese madrigueira and Galician madrigueira.^[5][6]

The Latin noun is formed from māter (“mother”), which gave madre; its ending may come from nūtrīx (“nurse”).^[7][8][1] Another popular descendant of the Latin noun was Old Spanish madriz, used by Alonso de Palencia before the learned matriz took its place.^[3][9]

Covarrubias explained the name by the mother rabbit keeping her young hidden in the burrow.^[10] Wiktionary compares the development with that of cunīculus (“underground tunnel; rabbit”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the Libro del Tesoro (1400–1425, Girona manuscript), in a passage where offspring break las madrigueras de lur madre “the madrigueras of their mother” and come out by force; the sense there seems to be “womb”.^[11] Corominas dates the word from Alonso de Palencia's vocabulary (1490), where rabbits dig their madrigueras under the ground.^[3][4][11]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glossed madriguera de conejo with Latin cuniculus.^[11][12] Covarrubias defined it as the little cave where rabbits breed and, by allusion, as an underground place where petty rogues gather.^[10] Autoridades extended it to other small animals that breed underground, such as the mole, and gave the figurative sense of a hiding place of wrongdoers fleeing punishment, with a quotation from Guzmán de Alfarache.^[13]

In the Americas Fernández de Oviedo used it in 1526 for the burrows of animals of the Indies, and a Mexico City dictionary of 1571 glosses tochtapaçolli as bivar o madriguera de conejos.^[11][14] The Academy derived the word from madre in 1884 and 1899;^[15][16] Alemany gave Latin matricaria in 1917, and the DLE now gives the Vulgar Latin form.^[15][16][2] Today it can also mean a snug little place where one feels safe.^[17]

Timeline

• 1046 – Corominas notes Madriguera in an original charter in the cartulary of Sant Cugat.^[3]
• 1400–1425 – the Libro del Tesoro uses it apparently for the womb.^[11]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia, of rabbits' burrows.^[3][4]
• 1495 – Nebrija's madriguera de conejo.^[11][12]
• 1526 – Fernández de Oviedo uses it of the animals of the Indies.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the rabbits' burrow and the figurative den.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives the sense “hiding place of wrongdoers”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from madre.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A burrow or den where certain animals live, especially rabbits: El tejón se escondió en su madriguera.^[2][1]
2. A hidden, out-of-the-way place where criminals hide, a hideout: La policía descubrió la madriguera de la banda.^[2][1]
3. A small, snug place where one feels safe and at ease.^[17]

Related words

• matriz
• madre
• matricaria
• Latin mātrīx
• Portuguese madrigueira

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. madriguera
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 754
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. madre
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. matricaria
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. mātrīx
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 451
10. ^ 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. 1101
11. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. madriguera
12. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. madriguera
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 450
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. madriguera
15. ^ 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. 661
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1061
17. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. madriguera