mestizo

Forms

mestizo (feminine mestiza, masculine plural mestizos, feminine plural mestizas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin mixtīcius (“mixed, of mixed birth”), from mixtus (“mixed”), the past participle of misceō (“to mix”).^[2][3][1][4] The Late Latin adjective is found in Jerome and Isidore.^[2][1] In 1884 and 1899 the Academy derived it instead from the Spanish adjective for “mixed”.^[5][6] Alemany in 1917 gave the Latin word.^[7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese mestiço, recorded from the 14th century, and Old Occitan mestitz (“vile, low”).^[2][8] French métis, first written mestis in the 13th century, is in its sense of mixed race it is a calque of the Spanish word, in use from 1721 according to Corominas, while the DHLF takes the 17th- and 18th-century forms ⟨metice⟩ and ⟨mestice⟩ to be adaptations of the Portuguese or the Spanish word.^[2][4] Catalan mestís probably came through Castilian.^[9]

The Latin participle also gave mestura and mesta, and mixto is its learned form.^[2][10] De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *miḱ-sk-e/o-.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275), of the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian in the Book of Leviticus: & en la uaraia aquel mestizo denosto a dios “and in the quarrel that man of mixed birth reviled God”.^[12][13] The DCECH and the BDELC date the word from the Inca Garcilaso, 1600.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

A document of Mexico City of 1551 speaks of ovejas mestizas, crossbred sheep, and documents of 1564 from Mexico and Peru speak of the many mestizos there.^[15] López de Gómara explained in 1554 that the mestizos were the children of Indian women and Spaniards.^[16] Covarrubias in 1611 still defined it only as an animal born of two different species.^[17] The Autoridades applied it to an animal of parents of different breeds, but quoted the Laws of the Indies on ordaining mestizos as priests and the Inca Garcilaso on las mestizas mis parientas.^[18]

The Academy defined it in 1817 as a person or animal born of parents of different castes, especially the child of a Spaniard and an Indian woman.^[19] From 1869 it was the child of a European or white man and an Indian woman.^[20] In 1899 it added the child of an Indian man and a white woman and the crossbred animal or plant; today's dictionary also applies it to cultures born of a mixture.^[6][3] In Chile it has named a coarse bran bread, in Ecuador a bread filled with cheese, in Colombia a timber tree, and in Mexico City a kind of cricket.^[21][22][23] In the Philippines it was used of people of mixed Filipino and foreign descent, and the word passed into Tagalog, Dutch and German.^[1]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria calls the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian mestizo.^[12]
• 1551 – ovejas mestizas in Mexico City, the first record in the Americas.^[15]
• 1554 – López de Gómara defines the mestizos as children of Indian women and Spaniards.^[16]
• 1600 – the Inca Garcilaso, the DCECH's first record.^[2][14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it of animals bred from different species.^[17]
• 1721 – French métis is used in the sense of mixed race, after the Spanish word.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – the Autoridades quotes the Laws of the Indies and the Inca Garcilaso.^[18]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it especially as the child of a Spaniard and an Indian woman.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the child of an Indian man and a white woman, and crossbred animals and plants.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: born of a father and a mother of different races, especially of a white man and an indigenous woman or of an indigenous man and a white woman; also used as a noun.^[3][1]
2. Of an animal or plant: crossbred from two different breeds or varieties.^[3][24]
3. Of a culture or other things of the mind: born of the mixture of different cultures: la música mestiza del Caribe.^[3]
4. (Philippines, historical) Of mixed Filipino and foreign descent, especially Spanish or Chinese.^[1]

Noun

1. A person of mixed descent, especially of European and indigenous American parents.^[3][1]
2. (Chile) A coarse bread made with bran.^[21][25]
3. (Colombia) A tall timber tree, Guarea trichiloides;^[22] (Ecuador) a bread filled with crumbled cheese.^[22]

Word family

• mestizaje
• mestizar

Related words

• mecer
• mestura
• mezclar
• mixto
• Portuguese mestiço
• French métis

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 9
3. ^ 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. mestizo
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. métis
5. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 699
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 655
7. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1128
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2209
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mestís
10. ^ 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
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 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. mestizo
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mezclar
15. ^ 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. mestizo
16. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. mestizo
17. ^ 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. 1133
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 556
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 571
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 506
21. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 557
22. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mestizo
23. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 719
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mestizo
25. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 275