pavón

Forms

pavón m (plural pavones)^[1] Old Spanish wrote pauon; the Libro de Alexandre has paón, and one manuscript of Berceo pagón.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pavón, inherited from Latin pāvō (“peacock”), continued through its accusative.^[2][4][5][1] Corominas calls this the old and properly Castilian form; pavo, first recorded in Nebrija and perhaps from western Mozarabic, continues the variant pāvus, found both in archaic and in late Latin.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese pavão, Catalan paó, French paon, Italian pavone and Romanian păun.^[2][6][7]

The OLD considers the Latin word probably an Eastern word and compares Ancient Greek ταώς (taṓs, “peacock”).^[8] Wiktionary gives it as likely borrowed from the Greek word, or possibly imitative.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250), which sets a payment of one maravedí for a pauon.^[3] Corominas dates the word to 1220–1250, with Berceo, who describes a fan made de alas de pavones “of peacocks' wings”.^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages pavón named only the peacock (pavo real); Alonso de Palencia called it a beautiful bird “as if full of eyes in its feathers”.^[2] When the American turkey was brought to Spain after the Discovery, it took the name pavo, and the peacock was then distinguished as pavo real (1737), which left pavón a rare word for it.^[2][4][1]

The 1737 volume of Autoridades has pavón as the name of a southern constellation.^[9] The Academy added in 1884 the sense “dark blue colour given to iron”, which Corominas compares with Italian paonazzo “violet”, and in 1899 it described it as a varnish-like coating that protects iron and steel from rust.^[10][2][11] The butterflies with eyespots like a peacock's tail are named in modern dictionaries.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has pauon.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a stone's colour to the feathers of the peacock's neck.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives pavo o pava o pavon, the first record of pavo.^[2][14]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1737 – Autoridades records pavón as the name of a constellation.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the dark blue colour given to iron.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) The peacock, pavo real.^[5][1]
2. A butterfly (mariposa) or moth with round eyespots on its wings like the markings of a peacock's tail.^[5][1]
3. bluing: a shiny surface layer of blue, black or brown oxide given to steel parts to improve their look and prevent corrosion (corrosión).^[5][12]
4. (Costa Rica, Mexico) A large tropical American bird of the order Galliformes that lives in dense, low forests.^[5][16]

Word family

• pavonearse
• pavonar
• empavonar

Related words

• pavo
• pavonazo
• Portuguese pavão
• Italian pavone

Usage notes

Pavón diurno is a day-flying butterfly and pavón nocturno the largest Spanish moth.^[5][12] In Venezuela pavón is a colourful freshwater fish, in Guatemalan slang a prison, and in Peru an adjective for a person who blushes easily.^[16] Older dictionaries also gave it as the name of a constellation near the south celestial pole.^[9][11]

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 i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 441
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 Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pavo
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. pavón
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6313
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer