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maleta

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word maleta

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1240–1250 Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy) More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Old French malete
Ultimate origin
Frankish *malha

Pronunciation

  • /maˈleta/, [maˈle.t̪a][1]

Forms

maleta f (plural maletas)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French malete (“small bag, valise”), according to Corominas, a diminutive of male, modern French malle “trunk”, which is from Frankish *malha (“travelling bag”).[2][3][4][5] The French diminutive is recorded from 1294 to the 15th century, and the simple noun from the 11th century; the English word mail comes from the latter.[2]

The Frankish word is reconstructed from Old High German malaha, Middle High German malhe and Dutch maal.[2][6] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Germanic *malhō (“leather bag”) and Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“leather bag”).[1]

The Academy's dictionary, Moliner and Wiktionary derive the word within Spanish instead, as a diminutive from Spanish mala + -eta.[7][8][1] Corominas records the simple Spanish noun, “valise”, only from the Crónica de 1344, and as the post bag from 1734, taken from the French word.[2][3] Covarrubias derived the word from a Hebrew verb meaning “to fill”, or from French, and Cabrera from Latin manticula.[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy) tells of soldiers loaded with booty: maletas e perçintos, quantos sacos ovieron “valises and girdles, all the sacks they had”.[11] Corominas's first record is the Poema de Fernán González (c. 1250): Muchas rricas maletas e muchos (de) çurrones “many rich valises and many leather bags”.[2][11] The CDH's earliest hit, in Berceo's Signos del juicio, is another word: Corominas reads it as “sins, misdeeds”, a form of malfeta from Latin malefactum.[2][11]

Semantic evolution

In the General Estoria (1280) a maleta holds poppy seeds sent as a message, and the Libro de los fueros de Castiella has a chapter on how robbers cut a pilgrim's bags.[11][12] Alonso de Palencia described it as a chest or box of leather for clothes.[2] Covarrubias in 1611 and the Diccionario de Autoridades describe a long, round leather bag for clothes on a journey, closed with a rod or chain and a padlock;[9][13][14] Autoridades also records hacer la maleta “to prepare for a journey” and, in germanía, maleta “a prostitute kept by a man”.[9][13][14] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 still described a leather bag that could be carried on the crupper of a horse, and that of 1899 a small coffer of leather or canvas carried in the hand.[15][16]

In Argentina valija is the usual word for a suitcase, and maleta there came to mean a saddlebag.[2] In Cuba it means a hump, in Peru a person's back, in Cuba and the Canaries a schoolbag, and in Chile and Venezuela the boot of a car.[7][17]

Timeline

  • 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has maletas.[11]
  • c. 1250 – the Poema de Fernán González, Corominas's first record.[2][11]
  • 1280 – the General Estoria of Alfonso X, the first record in a manuscript of its own time.[11]
  • 1294 – French malete is first recorded.[2]
  • 1344 – mala “valise” in the Crónica de 1344.[2]
  • 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: 1 maleta chica.[18]
  • 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records maleta “prostitute” in germanía.[14]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias describes the travelling bag with its chain and padlock.[9]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records hacer la maleta.[13]
  • 1734 – mala “post bag”, from French.[3]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives maleta from mala.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. suitcase: a case with a handle for carrying clothes and other things, above all on journeys.[7][1]
  2. A manga, a bag open at both ends.[7]
  3. (Chile, Venezuela) The boot or trunk of a car.[7][1]
  4. (Cuba) A schoolbag.[7][1]
  5. (Cuba) A person's hump.[7]
  6. (Peru) A person's back.[7]
  7. (germanía) A prostitute exploited by a pimp.[7]

Word family

  • maletero
  • maletín
  • maletón

Usage notes

Hacer la maleta or hacer las maletas is to get ready to leave a place or a post;[7] andar como maleta de loco (Argentina, Uruguay) is to have no clear aim.[7] The DLE has two further words spelled maleta: an obsolete maleta “illness”, of unknown origin, which García de Diego derives from Latin male habitus crossed with maledictus, and a noun for a person who practises a profession clumsily, colloquially a bad bullfighter, and in Guatemala a wicked person, for which it gives no etymology.[7][19] Wiktionary explains the Salvadoran adjective maleta “bad at something, sloppy” as wordplay on malo.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 783
  3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maleta
  4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. maleta
  5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. maleta
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. malle
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. maleta
  8. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maleta
  9. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1105
  10. ^ Cabrera, Ramón (1837), Diccionario de etimologías de la lengua castellana, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta de Marcos Bueno, p. s.v. maleta
  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. maleta
  12. ^ 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. maleta
  13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 463
  14. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 185
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 666
  16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 624
  17. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. maleta
  18. ^ 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. maleta
  19. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4052

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Maleta.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/maleta. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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