maniobra

Forms

maniobra f (plural maniobras)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas takes the noun and the verb maniobrar as naval and military terms borrowed from French manœuvre and manœuvrer, fitted to the shape of Spanish words such as manipular and maniatar.^[2] Wiktionary calls it a calque of the French word.^[1] The DLE derives it simply from mano and obra.^[3]

The French noun is first recorded in 1248, in the Picard form Old French manuevre, and comes from Medieval Latin manuopera (“work done by hand”), attested about 800 in the sense “labour service”.^[4] Corominas traces the French verb to a Gallo-Latin phrase meaning “to work with the hand”, found in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, and notes that it first named the manual services owed to a feudal lord.^[2] The Medieval Latin noun is built from the ablative of Latin manus (“hand”) and operari (“to work”).^[5][4] From French also came Portuguese manobrar and Italian manovrare;^[2] Occitan manobra and Catalan manobre (“mason's labourer”) are as old as those languages.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun to Autoridades (1734).^[2] The CDH has it earlier: in Jerónimo de Urrea's translation of Ariosto (1549), a fallen warrior gets up to hacer maniobra con la espada “to work with his sword”, and the Veintiún libros de los ingenios y máquinas (before 1605) speak of the maniobra a piece of building work will need.^[6] The DTME dates the word in Spanish from 1379.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1734) records only the sense “any material work done with the hands”.^[8] By 1817 the Academy had added the military evolution of troops, the figurative sense of a trick or scheme in a business, and the naval senses: the art of handling a ship, the work done on board with sails and anchors, and the rigging itself.^[9] The 1869 edition notes that the figurative sense was usually meant badly.^[10] Domínguez (1846) also records the operations of machines and the practice of surgery on a corpse or a model.^[11] Alemany (1917) has the shunting of trains at stations and junctions.^[12] The DLE now adds the movements made to turn or park a vehicle.^[3]

In the Americas it is recorded from 1738 in New Granada, and in 1746 in Mexico for the work of ships' crews.^[13] Corominas dates the verb maniobrar and the noun maniobrista to Terreros.^[2]

Timeline

• 1248 – the French noun is first recorded, as manuevre.^[4]
• 1549 – Urrea's translation of Ariosto has hacer maniobra con la espada.^[6]
• a1605 – the Veintiún libros de los ingenios y máquinas use it of building work.^[6]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines it as work done with the hands, Corominas's first record.^[8][2]
• 1738 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[13]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records maniobrar and maniobrista.^[2]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the military, figurative and naval senses.^[9]
• 1917 – Alemany records the shunting of trains.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A manual operation, work done with the hands.^[3]
2. A manoeuvre, scheme or trick by which someone intervenes in an affair, usually in a bad sense: una maniobra para quedarse con la empresa.^[3][14][1]
3. (nautical) The art of handling a ship by the helm, the sails or other means.^[3]
4. (nautical) The work done on board with the tackle, sails and anchors.^[3]
5. (nautical) The rigging of a ship, a mast or a yard.^[3]
6. (in the plural) Military exercises and mock battles: El regimiento está de maniobras.^[3][15]
7. (in the plural) The shunting of locomotives and carriages at stations and junctions.^[3]
8. (in the plural) The movements made to turn or steer a vehicle: Aparcó el coche en tres maniobras.^[3][15]

Word family

• maniobrar
• maniobrero
• maniobrista

Related words

• mano
• obra
• manipular
• French manœuvre
• Italian manovra

References

1. ^ a b c d 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, 817
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. maniobra
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 441
6. ^ 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. maniobra
7. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. maniobra
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 480
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 549
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 485
11. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1138
12. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1080
13. ^ 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. maniobra
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maniobra
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. maniobra