papagayo

Forms

papagayo m (plural papagayos)^[1] The DLE also gives a feminine papagaya, with the masculine used for the species.^[2] Early American texts also have papagallo, and Terreros notes that villages said papagallo.^[3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][5] Corominas takes it, probably, as borrowed from Old Occitan papagai, which comes from Arabic بَبَّغَاء (babbaġāʔ, “parrot”), an old word in the Arabic of the East whose own origin is not well established.^[5] The Occitan form, he argues, was altered under the influence of words of that language: gai (“merry”) and papa or papar (“to eat”).^[5] In his Catalan dictionary he reads the change as a popular etymology that made the word a compound of Catalan gaig (“jay”) and papa or papar (“to eat”).^[6] Wiktionary instead derives it from Byzantine Greek παπαγᾶς (papagâs), from the same Arabic word, which it considers imitative.^[1] The DHLF names the Byzantine form as a possible link between the Arabic and Old Provençal words.^[7]

On the origin of the Arabic word, Corriente, Pereira and Vicente trace it to New Persian and see the word spreading through Mediterranean trade.^[8] Dozy held that it was not Arabic in origin, rejected an Indian source and supposed an African one.^[9] Friederici thinks that the Arabs passed the name on to Europe, having perhaps received it from West Africa, where similar forms were noted in Sierra Leone.^[10] Nocentini considers it probably imitative.^[11]

The same word is Catalan papagai, Portuguese papagaio, Old French papegai and Italian pappagallo, whose ending was reshaped after gallo (“cock”).^{[6][12][7][13][14]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word 1251.^[5] The General estoria of Alfonso X (1280) explains it: en india son otrossi las aues a que en ell latin dizen psitacos & son las aues a que en el castellano dizen papagayos “in India there are also the birds that in Latin are called psittaci, and they are the birds that in Castilian are called parrots”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 describes it as a bird of the Indies with very fine colours that imitates the human voice, and records the phrase hablar como papagayo, said of someone whose good sayings are learned by heart rather than his own.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades notes that after the discovery of the Indies new kinds of parrots were found, records a tulip named for its colours, and gives the germanía sense “court servant, informer” from Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary.^[17][18] The Academy added the plant Amaranthus tricolor in 1817 and a fish in 1843.^[19][20]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1515, as papagallos, in Tierra Firme.^[3] There and in the Canaries it also names a kite, a sense that the Canarian historical dictionary takes from Portuguese papagaio, first recorded in Viera y Clavijo in 1812.^{[21][22][23][24]} In Peru and Argentina it is a urinal bottle for bedridden men, in Ecuador a green viper, and in Mexico a chatterbox.^[22][25][26] The Old French word became Dutch papegaai, and through Dutch Russian попугай (popugaj).^[1] Etymonline derives English popinjay from Old French papegai and that from Spanish.^[27]

Timeline

• a. 1230 – c. 1250 – the DEMel lists it in the vocabulary of the Libro de Alexandre.^[28]
• 1251 – the BDELC's first record.^[5]
• 1280 – the General estoria glosses Latin psitacos with papagayos.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario has papagaio ave conocida, Latin psittacus.^[29]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, as papagallos.^[3]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's germanía vocabulary gives “court servant, informer”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records hablar como papagayo.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades also records the tulip and the germanía sense.^[17]
• 1812 – papagayo “kite” in Viera y Clavijo, in the Canaries.^[21]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the plant Amaranthus tricolor.^[19]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the fish.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. parrot: a brightly coloured tropical bird of the order Psittaciformes with a strong, hooked beak, which can learn to repeat words: El papagayo de mi abuela repite su nombre.^[2][25][1]
2. (figurative) A person who talks a lot, or who repeats what others say without understanding it.^[25][26]
3. (ichthyology) A brightly coloured edible sea fish of rocky coasts, a wrasse.^[2][25][1]
4. (botany) Joseph's coat, Amaranthus tricolor, an ornamental amaranth from China with leaves of three colours.^[2][25][1]
5. (botany) A plant of Brazil, Caladium, with large shield-shaped leaves of bright colours.^[2][25]
6. (Ecuador) A very venomous green viper.^[25]
7. (Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba) A kite, the toy.^[22][25][23]
8. (Peru, Argentina) A urinal bottle for a man who cannot leave his bed.^[22][30]

Related words

• Portuguese papagaio
• Catalan papagai
• Italian pappagallo
• English popinjay

Usage notes

Hablar como un papagayo means to say sensible things without understanding them, or simply to talk a great deal.^[2][17] Papagayo de noche is the guácharo, a nocturnal bird.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. papagayo
3. ^ a b c 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. papagayo
4. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 29
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. papagayo
6. ^ a b 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, 246
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. papegai
8. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. papagai
9. ^ Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 344
10. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 476
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. pappagallo
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2464
13. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. pappagallo
14. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 853
15. ^ 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. papagayo
16. ^ 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. 1191
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 112
18. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 190
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 636
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 529
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. papagayo
22. ^ 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. papagayo
23. ^ a b Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 398
24. ^ Segovia, Lisandro (1911), Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos, Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, p. 334
25. ^ a b c d e f g h Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. papagayo
26. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 800
27. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
28. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. papagayo
29. ^ 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. papagayo
30. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. papagayo