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mazo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word mazo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1200–1250 La Fazienda de Ultra Mar More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Latin mateola
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish maza
Spanish mazo

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmaθo/, [ˈma.θo], /ˈmaso/[1]

Forms

mazo m (plural mazos)[1] Old Spanish wrote maço, with the voiceless ⟨ç⟩.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a masculine formed from Spanish maza (“mace, club”), which Corominas calls secondary; the same masculine reappears in Portuguese maço and Italian mazzo.[3][5][6][1] García de Diego files both words under the Latin source of the base word.[7] The Academy's dictionaries from Autoridades to 1899 derived the noun from Latin malleus (“hammer”).[8][9] Alemany in 1917 and the modern DLE give the base word instead.[10][6]

The base word continues Vulgar Latin *mattea, which seems to be a back-formation from Latin mateola (“wooden mallet, maul”).[3][11] The Latin word is found only in Cato, a couple of times, for a mallet used to drive in a stake, and in Pliny quoting him.[3][12] De Vaan takes it as a diminutive of a noun for a hoe or similar tool, from Proto-Italic *matejā- and Proto-Indo-European *mot- (“club, hoe”), comparing Sanskrit and Slavic words for a club, harrow or hoe and medela (“plough”).[13] Corominas thinks the comparison semantically uncertain and the word perhaps not genuinely Latin, but finds a Celtic origin unlikely because of Romanian măciucă.[3] Old Spanish maça, Catalan and Gallo-Romance all point to a base with -tt-.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in the story of Jael and Sisera: priso un clavo en una mano e un maço en la otra mano “she took a nail in one hand and a mallet in the other”.[2][14] Corominas dates the word to Berceo, with the sense “club”, and the BDELC to 1220–1250.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used maço for a club or weapon: Berceo's Santo Domingo speaks of a heavy blow de maço o de palo “of a club or a stick”, and the Libro de Alexandre of a maço de fierro.[2][15] The Gran Conquista de Ultramar applies it to a siege engine.[3] Alfonso X's prose has the carpenter's mallet, and Nebrija gives Latin malleus for a maço para majar.[4][3]

The sense “bunch of flowers, bundle of things held together” is recorded from 1570, and Corominas thinks that maceta first meant a bunch of flowers before naming the pot that holds them.[5][3] The earliest record from the Americas, from Puerto Rico in 1513, already speaks of mazos de cuentas “strings of beads” for trading with the Indians.[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the carpenter's mallet, the bundle of goods (mazo de cintas) and, in the card game of primera, a winning combination worth 55 points.[8] The Academy added the figurative sense of a tiresome person in 1817 and the Aragonese bell clapper in 1899.[17][9]

Cervantes's Quijote already has the proverb a Dios rogando y con el mazo dando “pray to God but keep hammering”, which the Academy recorded in 1869.[18][19] In the Canaries a mazo de puros is a pack of cigars.[20][21] In Central and South America the word is taboo slang for the penis, and in Honduras it also means a pestle, a pack of twelve cigars, a marijuana cigarette and a pistol.[22]

Timeline

  • 1200–1250 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has maço for a mallet (in a 13th-century copy).[2]
  • c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos has maço for a club.[2][15]
  • 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre speaks of a maço de fierro (in an early 15th-century copy).[2]
  • 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses the plural maços of a carpenter's tools.[4]
  • 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: mazos de cuentas.[16]
  • 1570 – first record of the sense “bundle”.[5]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives the word from Latin malleus.[8]
  • 1817 – the Academy adds the figurative sense “tiresome person”.[17]
  • 1869 – the Academy records the proverb a Dios rogando y con el mazo dando.[19]
  • 1893 – a Tenerife newspaper has mazo de puros.[20]
  • 1899 – the Academy adds the Aragonese sense “bell clapper”.[9]
  • 1917 – Alemany derives the word from maza.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large mallet, usually of wood.[6][1]
  2. A tool or machine part used for striking or pounding, such as the stick of a bass drum or the hammer of a fulling mill; the pestle of a mortar; a gavel.[6][23][1]
  3. A bundle of papers or other things tied or held together; a wad of banknotes; a deck of cards.[6][23][1]
  4. (card games, historical) In the game of primera, the six, seven and ace of one suit, worth 55 points.[6]
  5. (colloquial) A tiresome, boring person.[6][23]
  6. (rural Aragon) The clapper of a bell.[6][24]
  7. (Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia; taboo) The penis.[22]

Word family

  • mazazo
  • macillo
  • mazuelo

Usage notes

In the slang of Madrid mazo is also an adverb meaning “a lot, loads”: Esa película me gustó mazo.[1] The nautical mazo rodero is a prismatic mallet with a long handle used on ships to make oakum by pounding old rope.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 893
  4. ^ a b c 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. mazo
  5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maza
  6. ^ 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. mazo
  7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. mazo
  8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 521
  9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 645
  10. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1105
  11. ^ 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. maza
  12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mazo
  15. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 477
  16. ^ 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. mazo
  17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 562
  18. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 728
  19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 498
  20. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. mazo
  21. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. mazo
  22. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mazo
  23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mazo
  24. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 258
Cite this entry

“Mazo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/mazo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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