martillo

Forms

martillo m (plural martillos)^[1] Old Spanish martiello was the usual form in Berceo, the Libro de Alexandre and Alfonso X;^[1] martillo is found from Alonso de Palencia (1490) and Nebrija on.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish martiello, inherited from Vulgar Latin martellus (“hammer”).^[2][4][5][1] The DLE calls the Latin word Late Latin; it is recorded in Isidore of Seville and in glosses, as a diminutive of martulus (“small hammer”), found in Pliny beside classical marculus.^[2][5] The DHLF explains the diminutive as a hypercorrect resuffixation of the Pliny form, itself an altered form of the classical one.^[6] Wiktionary mentions the alternative that it was formed on malleus (“hammer, mallet”).^[1] The classical diminutive is continued in Spanish macho “mallet, hammer”.^[7][8]

The word is common to the western Romance languages: Portuguese martelo, Galician martelo, Asturian martiellu, Catalan martell, French marteau and Italian martello.^{[2][9][1][10]}

De Vaan takes the classical diminutive as formed on a noun with a velar suffix, with a dissimilation of /l/ to /r/ that Schrijver proposed; with the word for “mallet” it belongs to the root Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind”).^[11][1] Covarrubias and Autoridades already derived the Spanish word from the Latin word for “mallet”.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to Berceo, as martiello; the BDELC dates it 1220–1250.^[2][4] In Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora a thing is held more firmly than a nail driven in con martiello.^[3] The DHLE dates the first record to the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250), in the sense of a weapon of hand-to-hand fighting, and the tool sense to Abraham of Toledo's Moamín (1250).^[14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has the phrase a martiello “by hammering”, used of glass worked like silver.^[15] In germanía the word meant “road”, a sense Juan Hidalgo recorded in 1609.^[16][13]

Autoridades records the metaphor of a person who persecutes and tries to root something out, as in martillo de las herejías “hammer of heresies”.^[13] In 1817 the Academy added the key used to tune stringed instruments and the cross of the Order of Saint John without its right arm, and in 1869 the auction house, so called because a hammer blow closes the sale.^[17][18][5] Alemany (1917) records the bone of the middle ear.^[19]

Italian martello took the figurative sense “jealousy, torment of love”.^[2] Spanish borrowed this sense as martelo (1599), with the derivative amartelar.^[2][4] In Cuba and Chile martillo is a wing of a building set at a right angle to the main body, and in Venezuela, Honduras and El Salvador a person who is always asking for things.^[20][21][22]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo, as martiello.^[2][4]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses martiellos for war hammers.^[14][3]
• 1250 – Abraham of Toledo's Moamín has the tool sense.^[14]
• c. 1250 – the derivative martillar, as martellar, appears in the Setenario.^[2][4]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia has the modern form martillo.^[2]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico: 1 martillo pequeño y 1 barrena.^[23]
• 1599 – martelo “jealousy” is borrowed from Italian.^[2]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records the germanía sense “road”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin malleus.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense “auction house”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hammer: a tool with a head, usually of iron, and a handle, usually of wood, used for striking: Pásame el martillo y los clavos.^[5][1]
2. A tuning key or hammer for stringed instruments.^[5]
3. (heraldry) The cross of the Order of Saint John without its right arm.^[5]
4. A person who persecutes something in order to stamp it out: martillo de herejes.^[5][24]
5. An auction house.^[5][1]
6. (anatomy) The malleus, one of the small bones of the middle ear, between the eardrum and the anvil.^[5][1]
7. (athletics) The hammer, a metal ball on a cable with a handle, thrown in a field event.^[5][1]
8. The hammer of a firearm.^[24][25]
9. (Cuba, Chile) A wing of a building at a right angle to the main body.^[20][21]

Word family

• martillar
• martillazo
• amartillar
• martillear
• martillero

Related words

• macho
• martelo
• Latin malleus
• French marteau

Usage notes

Common compounds are martillo neumático “pneumatic drill” and martillo de carpintero “claw hammer”; the phrase a machamartillo means “solidly, firmly”.^[5][26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 865
3. ^ 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. martillo
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. martillo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. martillo
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. marteau
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5347
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. marculus
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. martellus
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. martiellu
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1119
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, 505
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. martillo
15. ^ 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. martillo
16. ^ a b 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. 186
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 558
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 494
19. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1095
20. ^ a b Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 354
21. ^ a b Medina, José Toribio (1927), Chilenismos: apuntes lexicográficos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Universo, p. 59
22. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. martillo
23. ^ 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. martillo
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. martillo
25. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. martillo
26. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 463