Etymologically
Log in

perro

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word perro

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1202 Fuero de Madrid More words from the 13th century
From
Old Spanish perro

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpero/, [ˈpe.ro][1]

Forms

perro m (plural perros, feminine perra, feminine plural perras, diminutive perrillo or perrito)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish perro, a word found only in Castilian, of uncertain origin.[2][3][4][1] Corominas thinks it probably an expressive creation, perhaps based on the call ⟨prrr⟩ or ⟨brrr⟩ with which shepherds urge on their dogs to move the flock; he compares Galician apurrar (“to set the dogs on”).[2][3][5] Wiktionary also gives the theory of an Iberian origin, comparing Asturian perru.[1]

Corominas rejects the other proposals.[2] Schuchardt's “perhaps Iberian”, taken by the REW in the sense “pre-Roman”, fails because initial /p/ is foreign to Basque and Iberian.[2] Hernando Balmori revived the old derivation from Latin canis petronius (“hunting dog”), explaining the adjective by Gaulish petru- (“four”) with a word for “foot”, “four-footed”;[2] Corominas finds this impossible in sound and meaning, since the vowel would have diphthongised in Castilian.[2] He also thinks a word for so basic an animal, first recorded in the 12th century, unlikely to be pre-Roman.[2]

Old Spanish kept the Latin word Old Spanish can for the noble and hunting dog, while the new word was low and insulting.[2][3] It won partly because the old word had no feminine and no diminutive, so even writers who avoided the new one used perra and perriello.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place called Monte de Perrá appears in a Leonese charter of 1136, and the nickname Diego Perro in a Mozarabic document of Toledo of 1211.[2][3] The earliest use as a common noun that Corominas cites is a passage of the Fuero de Madrid of 1202 about a dog that does damage in the vineyards.[2][7] In the 13th century it is often an insult or a contemptuous comparison: the Calila likens base men to a dog pleased with a dry bone.[2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X and Don Juan Manuel use only can or clearly prefer it, and Berceo, the Cid and the Apolonio do not know perro at all.[2] Juan Ruiz in the 14th century already favours it, keeping can for proverbs, and an Aragonese inventory of 1374 speaks of the sheepdogs of a flock.[2] Can remained the usual word of the nobility and of literature into the 15th century.[2][3]

Autoridades records perro as an insult, especially to Moors and Jews, and in the sense “stubborn, firm in an opinion”.[8] The Academy's 1843 dictionary adds the sense “a trick or harm done to someone in a bargain”, in dar perro.[9] Its etymologies varied: Avestan vehrka “wolf”, with a question mark, in 1884, Low Latin petronius in 1899, and Latin petro “rustic” in Alemany's dictionary of 1917.[10][11][12] Covarrubias had derived it from Greek pyr “fire”, for the animal's dry, fiery nature, as Autoridades reports.[13][8]

The word was borrowed with its low tone: the word Occitan pérrou of Béarn means a guard dog, Piedmontese perro a little dog, and in Portuguese it belonged to the speech of Black people.[2] In Latin America it has many senses: a clothes peg in Chile, a first-year student in Mexico, a womaniser in parts of Central America and Colombia.[14][15][1]

Timeline

  • 1136 – the place name Monte de Perrá in a Leonese charter.[2][3]
  • 1202 – the Fuero de Madrid has the common noun.[2]
  • 1211 – the nickname Diego Perro in a Toledo document.[2]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has perro rauioso “rabid dog”.[16]
  • c. 1275 – the diminutive perrillo is recorded.[3]
  • 1374 – an Aragonese inventory mentions the sheepdogs of a flock.[2]
  • 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[17]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Greek pyr “fire”.[13]
  • 1884 – the Academy proposes, with a question mark, an Avestan word for “wolf”.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. dog: the domestic mammal of the canid family, of very varied size, shape and coat, with a keen sense of smell and loyal to its owner.[4][1]
  2. (colloquial, also as an insult) A despicable person.[4][1]
  3. Harm done to someone by cheating them in a bargain.[4][15]
  4. (obsolete) A stubborn man, firm in an opinion or undertaking.[4]
  5. (Chile) A token or small stone used in the game of león; a clothes peg.[4][15][1]
  6. (Mexico) A first-year university student.[14]

Adjective

  1. (colloquial) Very bad, wretched: Llevamos una semana perra.[4][1]
  2. (El Salvador) Angry, bad-tempered.[4][14]

Word family

  • perrada
  • perrengue
  • perrera
  • perreta
  • perrillo
  • perruno
  • aperrear
  • emperrarse
  • perrezno
  • aperrar
  • perrear
  • perrero
  • perrito
  • Galician apurrar
  • Asturian perru

Usage notes

The feminine perra has senses of its own: a prostitute, a child's tantrum, a fixed idea and, colloquially, money;[4] perra chica and perra gorda were the old five- and ten-céntimo coins.[4] Set phrases include perro de aguas, perro faldero and muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia.[4][1]

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 p q r s t Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 498
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perro
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. perro
  5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 543
  6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. perro
  7. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. perro
  8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 232
  9. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 554
  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), p. 819
  11. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 769
  12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1303
  13. ^ 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. 1208
  14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. perro
  15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perro
  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. perro
  17. ^ 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. perro
Cite this entry

“Perro.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/perro. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·