oruga

Forms

oruga f (plural orugas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish oruga, inherited from Vulgar Latin urūca, an assimilated form of classical ērūca (“caterpillar; rocket (plant)”).^[2][3][4][1] This form is found in late Latin authors, from Pliny on.^[2] Dozy and Baist derived the Spanish word from an Andalusian Arabic word for “caterpillar, grub, aphid” recorded by Pedro de Alcalá.^[2] Corominas rejects this, since the Arabic word is itself a loan from the Romance of al-Andalus, of Latin origin.^[2][5]

The Vulgar Latin form also gave Old Occitan auruga, while Catalan eruga, Occitan eruga and Galician eiruga continue the classical one.^[2][6] The plant's Italian name, ruchetta, was borrowed into Spanish as ruqueta.^[2][6]

De Vaan analyses the classical word as ēr (“hedgehog”) with a suffix taken from a word like verrūca (“wart”): the caterpillar would be named for its rough back.^[7][1] Wiktionary also gives a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”).^[1] The plant name seems to be secondary to the animal name.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) translates Joel's plague of insects: remasalla de oruga comió la langosta “what the caterpillar left, the locust ate”.^[9][10] Corominas's first record is later, a glossary of the Escorial of about 1400.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Both Latin senses, the larva and the plant, came into Spanish.^[2][7] The Moamín of 1250 uses the seed of the oruga plant in a remedy for hawks, and the Gospel of Matthew of about 1260 has oruga for the creature that eats stored treasure.^[9][11] Nebrija in 1495 gave both, oruga ierva conocida and oruga gusano.^[12][13]

Covarrubias in 1611 called it a well-known herb put in salads, and the name of small worms bred on green leaves.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades added a sauce of the herb with sugar or honey, vinegar and toasted bread, with a quotation from a cookery book.^[15] In the 19th century the Academy's definitions of the larva became zoological, and the 1869 edition listed the expression oruga le dio, said of something lost or wasted.^[16][17] The modern sense “caterpillar track” of a vehicle is a comparison with the larva; it also names a tracked vehicle.^[4][18]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) uses it for the caterpillar.^[9]
• 1250 – the Moamín names the seed of the plant.^[9]
• c. 1400 – a glossary of the Escorial, Corominas's first record.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija lists the plant and the worm.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes it as a salad herb and a small worm.^[14]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sauce called oruga.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary lists oruga le dio.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A caterpillar, the larva of a butterfly or moth: Las orugas se comieron las hojas de la col.^[4][19][1]
2. (mechanics) A caterpillar track, the jointed endless belt round the wheels on each side of a vehicle; also a tracked vehicle.^[4][18]
3. rocket, arugula: a cruciferous herb with sharp-tasting leaves used as a seasoning.^[4][19][1]
4. A sauce made of this herb with sugar or honey, vinegar and toasted bread.^[4][15]

Related words

• ruqueta
• Latin eruca
• Catalan eruga

Usage notes

Oruga procesionaria is the processionary caterpillar that damages pines and oaks.^[4] The colloquial expression oruga le dio is said of something lost or wasted.^[4][17]

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 i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 309
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oruga
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. oruga
5. ^ Eguílaz y Yanguas, Leopoldo de (1886), Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, portuguesas, valencianas y bascongadas) de origen oriental, Granada: La Lealtad, p. 491
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2907
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. roquette
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. oruga
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. oruga
11. ^ 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. oruga
12. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. oruga
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 390
14. ^ 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. 1180
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 62
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 517
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 558
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. oruga
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oruga