mesta

Forms

mesta f (plural mestas)^[1] Navarrese has the form mezta for a herd of livestock belonging to several owners.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mixta (“mixed”), the feminine of the past participle of misceō (“to mix”).^[1][3][4] Bénaben and Segura Munguía take it as short for animalia mixta (“mixed animals”), the animals of several owners gathered into one herd.^[5][3] Corominas argues for the same origin, from the oldest sense of the word, a herd gathering the livestock of all owners and the animals of no known owner.^[6] The Latin participle goes back to Proto-Italic *mikstos.^[7]

The same Latin word gave Asturian amestar (“to join, put together”) and, in Navarre, the form mezta.^[2] The learned mixto is a later borrowing of the same participle.^[2][8]

Older guesses are now only history: Covarrubias explained it by the mingling of many herds, but also by amistad (“friendship”), because the stockmen were so united.^[9] Rosal, quoted by Monlau, derived it from Latin menstrua (“monthly”), as if the meetings had been monthly fairs.^[10] The Academy's 1899 dictionary gave an Arabic word meaning “winter quarters”, but later editions returned to the Latin participle.^[11][12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in two town charters, the Fuero de Cáceres and the Fuero de Usagre (1242–1275), which forbid a shepherd to sell mesta: Pastor non uenda mesta “let no shepherd sell mesta”.^[13][14][15] Here the word means the stray animals of unknown owners gathered into a common herd, the older sense that Corominas and Segura Munguía describe.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

From the herd the word passed to the gathering of shepherds that sorted the strays and returned them to their owners: an ordinance of 1273 speaks of holding three mestas every year, and the Fuero de Sepúlveda has a title on la mesta de los pastores.^[14][3] The great association of Castilian stockbreeders, the Concejo de la Mesta, was founded in 1273 and abolished in 1836.^[16][17] Covarrubias described it as a jurisdiction belonging to the stockmen, and Autoridades as the body of owners of large and small livestock, presided over by a minister of the royal council.^[9][18] The Academy's 1869 edition notes that it survived as a general association of stockbreeders.^[19] Today the DLE defines it in the past tense, as a historical institution.^[1]

In boundary descriptions of the 13th century las mestas is the meeting point of two streams, and this sense of “confluence” lives on in the plural.^[14][20][21] The word reached the Americas with the institution: a text of 1549 from Santo Domingo compares local herding to that of los de la Mesta in Extremadura.^[22] In Leonese it still names a herd of animals of several owners and the meeting of shepherds and stock owners.^[23]

Timeline

• 1242–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres and the Fuero de Usagre record mesta for a common herd of strays.^[13][14]
• 1255 – a royal charter uses las mestas for a confluence in a boundary description.^[14]
• 1273 – an ordinance mentions three mestas a year; the Concejo de la Mesta dates from this year.^[14][16]
• 1301 – the earliest manuscript in the Old Spanish Textual Archive with the word, a copy of the Siete Partidas.^[24]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives the Latin equivalent nundinae pastoriciae menstruae “monthly shepherds' fairs”.^[25]
• 1549 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias weighs mixta against a link with amistad.^[9]
• 1836 – the Mesta is abolished.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary briefly gives an Arabic etymology.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) The association of the owners of large and small livestock in Castile, who looked after the breeding and grazing of their herds and sold for the common supply.^[1][21]
2. (history) The Concejo de la Mesta, the powerful guild of Castilian stockbreeders (1273–1836); in this sense usually written Mesta.^[1][16]
3. (in the plural) The waters at the confluence of two or more streams.^[21][16]
4. (León) A herd made up of animals of several owners; a meeting of shepherds and stock owners.^[23]

Word family

• mesteño
• mostrenco

Related words

• mixto
• mestizo
• mezclar
• Latin mixtus

Usage notes

The name of the institution is usually capitalised: la Mesta, el Concejo de la Mesta.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. mesta
2. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4385
3. ^ a b c d Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 437
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mostrenco
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. mesta
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 165
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mezclar
9. ^ 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. 1133
10. ^ Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 332
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 655
12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1128
13. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mesta
14. ^ 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, p. s.v. mesta
15. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 298
16. ^ a b c d e f Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. mesta
17. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 556
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 506
20. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 714
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mesta
22. ^ 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. mesta
23. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. mesta
24. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. mesta
25. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380