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palo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word palo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin palus via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin pālus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pālus
Aromanian par
Spanish palo
English pole
From the same root
Latin tripālis ← pālus
English maypole ← pole

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpalo/, [ˈpa.lo][1]

Forms

palo m (plural palos)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish palo, inherited from Latin pālus (“stake, post”).[2][3][4][1] The original sense, shared with the other Romance languages, is a piece of wood longer than it is thick.[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese pau, Galician pau, Asturian palu, Catalan pal, French pieu, Italian palo and Romanian par.[5][6][7] Heraldic pal came into Spanish through pal.[5]

The Latin noun is usually connected with pangō (“to fix, fasten”).[8][9] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *pākslos and Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-slos, from *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach, fix”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already uses the word: if the man were caught, they would take his goods and pusiéssenle en un palo “put him on a stake”, that is, hang him.[10][2]

Semantic evolution

Spanish and Portuguese added senses the other Romance languages lack.[2] The first was “blow with a stick”, found in Berceo;[2][3] Corominas notes that Isidore of Seville already remarked on the Hispanic common people's liking for palus in the sense of “cudgel”.[2][3] The sense “wood” as a material is recorded from 1591, in Góngora and Percyvall.[2][3] The senses “the wood of a tree” and “tree” grew from it, a use that took deep root in the Americas.[2][3] Names of trees and woods were formed with it: palo santo, palo de Campeche, palo del Brasil and, in Spain, palo dulce for liquorice root.[2][11]

By the 19th century the Academy listed the suits of a pack of cards, the stalk of a fruit, the stroke of a letter that rises above or below the line, the masts of a ship and the gallows or garrote.[12][13] Today it also names each style of flamenco song, a shot that hits the goalpost, and colloquially a blow of bad luck, a robbery and sexual intercourse.[4] In Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela it means any tree or shrub, and in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela a drink of liquor.[14][15]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses palo for a stake on which a man is hanged.[10][3]
  • 1220–1250 – the sense “blow with a stick” is first recorded.[3][2]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for a rod held in a figure's hand.[16]
  • 1490 – the diminutive palillo is first recorded.[17]
  • 1526 – palo santo is first recorded.[17]
  • 1529 – the first record from the Americas: a patient in Mexico drinks el palo, the medicinal wood.[18]
  • 1591 – the sense “wood” as a material appears in Góngora and in Percyvall.[2][3]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records palo de ciego and dar de palos.[19]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades lists the woods of the Indies used for medicines and dyes, such as palo de Campeche.[11]
  • 1843 – the Academy lists the card suit and the stalk of a fruit among its senses.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stick: a piece of wood or other material, much longer than it is thick, usually round and easy to handle.[4][1]
  2. The handle of a tool or utensil: el palo del rastrillo.[4]
  3. wood as a material: una silla de palo.[4][20]
  4. Any of several woods, mostly from South America: palo de rosa.[4]
  5. (nautical) A mast of a ship.[20][1]
  6. A blow with a stick.[4][1]
  7. (historical) Capital punishment on a wooden device such as the gallows or the garrote.[4][1]
  8. (card games) A suit.[4][1]
  9. The stalk by which a fruit hangs from the tree.[4]
  10. The stroke of a letter that rises above or falls below the others, as in ⟨d⟩ or ⟨p⟩.[4]
  11. (music) Each traditional style of flamenco song.[4][1]
  12. (sports) A shot that hits the goalpost; the goalpost itself.[4][20]
  13. (colloquial) A setback or harm: Perder el trabajo fue un palo.[4]
  14. (colloquial) A robbery or hold-up.[4]
  15. (vulgar) Sexual intercourse.[4][14]
  16. (Central America, Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela) A tree or shrub.[14][1]
  17. (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela) A drink of liquor.[14][1]

Word family

  • palillo
  • paliza
  • palizada
  • palote
  • apalear
  • empalizar
  • palique
  • empalar
  • empalizada
  • palitroque
  • palisandro
  • Latin pālus
  • Portuguese pau

Usage notes

The proverb de tal palo, tal astilla says that children take after their parents.[21][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 356
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. palo
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. palo
  5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4763
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6182
  7. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. palu
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. palo
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. palo
  11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 95
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 525
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 567
  14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. palo
  15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 610
  16. ^ 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. palo
  17. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 531
  18. ^ 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. palo
  19. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1187
  20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. palo
  21. ^ 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. 526

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Palo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/palo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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