pabellón

Forms

pabellón m (plural pabellones)^[1] The old spelling was pavellón or pauellón, with ⟨v⟩, as in Nebrija and Covarrubias;^[2][3] Autoridades says it was the common spelling, but the Academy chose ⟨b⟩ for etymological reasons.^[2][3] Old Aragonese also had papallón (an inventory of 1487).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French paveillon (“army tent”), according to Corominas, the DLE and Wiktionary.^[2][4][5][1] Corominas takes the Spanish /ʎ/ and the old spelling with ⟨v⟩ as proof of a borrowing from Old French, as a military and courtly term.^[2]

The French word is from Latin pāpiliō (“butterfly; tent”).^[2][6] The sense “tent” is found in Latin from about 200 AD, in Tertullian, by comparison of the tent flapping in the wind with the wings of a butterfly.^[2][4] De Vaan explains the Latin word as a reduplication of a root meaning “to fly, flutter”, and compares the Germanic words for the butterfly from Proto-Germanic *fīfalðrōn-.^[7]

The same word is French pavillon, Portuguese pavilhão (from French), Catalan pavelló and Italian padiglione.^[6][8][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in Alfonso X's Primera Partida (1256–1263, in a copy of about 1290), on la tienda que trahe sobre ssí a que llaman pauellón, “the tent he carries over himself, which they call pavilion”.^[3][10] The DCECH's first record is much later, Gonzalo de Segovia about 1473, and Alfonso de Palencia (1490), who glosses Latin papilio as the kind of tent called pavellón.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “tent” the word passed to the canopy hung over a bed, a throne or an altar;^[2][4] Nebrija has pavellón de cama and the mosquito net pavellón de red.^[2][4] From the canopy over a throne it came to mean the flag with the arms of the Crown flown by a flagship, recorded in 1737, and hence the national flag and the nationality of a merchant ship.^[4][11][5] From “tent” it also came to mean an arbour or bower (1641, Arteaga) and later a detached building, now any of the buildings of a complex such as an exhibition, hospital or university campus.^[2][5] Anatomy calls the outer ear pabellón auditivo.^[5] In Venezuela pabellón is a dish of shredded meat, rice, black beans and fried plantain, and in Argentina and Uruguay a figure of the dance pericón.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1256–1263 – pauellón “tent” in Alfonso X's Primera Partida.^[3]
• c. 1473 – Gonzalo de Segovia, the DCECH's first record.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario.^[2][4]
• 1495 – Nebrija records the bed canopy and the mosquito net.^[2][4]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[13]
• 1641 – Arteaga uses it for an arbour.^[2][4]
• 1737 – the flag of the Crown on a flagship, in Autoridades.^[4][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A conical tent held up by a central pole and fixed to the ground with ropes and pegs.^[5][1]
2. A folding canopy that covers and adorns a bed, a throne or an altar.^[5]
3. A national flag (bandera); the nationality of a merchant ship: un petrolero con pabellón panameño.^[5][1]
4. The truncated pyramid formed by the facets of a cut gem.^[5]
5. (music) The flared bell at the end of some wind instruments.^[5][1]
6. A pile of three or more rifles leaning against one another, butts on the ground.^[5]
7. A building annexed to a larger one; any of the buildings of a complex: el pabellón de deportes; a pavilion.^[5][1]
8. Patronage, protection.^[5]
9. (poetic) Anything that covers like a vault.^[5]
10. (architecture) A projecting part of a façade, often crowned with a pediment.^[5]
11. (Venezuela) A dish of shredded meat, rice, black beans and fried plantain.^[5][1]
12. (Chile) An operating room.^[1]

Related words

• papilionáceo
• Latin pāpiliō

Usage notes

Pabellón auditivo or pabellón de la oreja is the outer ear.^[5] The phrase el pabellón cubre la mercancía states the rule of international law that a belligerent may not seize a neutral merchant ship.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 329
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pabellón
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. pabellón
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2505
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 247
10. ^ 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. pabellón
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. pabellón
12. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pabellón
13. ^ 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. pabellón