pescador

Forms

pescador (feminine pescadora, masculine plural pescadores, feminine plural pescadoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin piscātor (“fisherman”);^[2][1][3] Old Spanish already had pescador.^[2][1][3] The noun is formed from Latin piscor (“to fish”) + -tor, and the verb comes from piscis (“fish”).^[4][5][1] Corominas treats the word in his article on pez, beside pescar, from piscari.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese pescador, Catalan pescador, Occitan pescador, French pêcheur and Italian pescatore.^[7][3]

The Latin word for “fish” goes back to Proto-Italic *piski- and Proto-Indo-European *pisk- (“fish”), and is related to Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (fisks) and Old English fisċ.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Old Spanish text with the word in the Old Spanish Textual Archive is the Fuero de Alcalá de Henares of 1223.^[8] DEMel cites a Pescador in the cartulary of Santo Domingo de la Calzada of about 1156, apparently a name.^[9] Corominas dates the word to about 1250, and Alfonso X's Lapidario has it for one who fishes.^[6][10]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1737) defines the fisherman by trade, and records el Pescador as a name of the Pope, after Saint Peter, whom Christ made a pescador de almas “fisher of men”, whence the Fisherman's Ring.^[11] It also names a fish that catches others with a pouch hanging from its throat, the angler, still listed by the DLE as pejesapo.^[11][2] In the cant of thieves a pescador was one who stole with a picklock (Hidalgo, 1609).^[12]

The Academy's editions from 1817 carried two proverbs: pescador de caña, más come que gana “an angler eats more than he earns” and pescador que pesca un pez, pescador es “a fisher who catches one fish is a fisher”.^[13] In Chile and Argentina pescador was used also for the fishmonger, the Academy's pescadero.^[14][15] In many American countries pescadores are trousers reaching to mid-calf.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1156 – Pescador, apparently a name, in the cartulary of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.^[9]
• 1223 – the Fuero de Alcalá de Henares.^[8]
• c. 1250 – Corominas's date;^[6][10] Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[6][10]
• 1541 – the first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[17]
• 1609 – Hidalgo records the cant sense “thief with a picklock”.^[12]
• 1737 – Autoridades records the Pope as el Pescador and the fish called pescador.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary prints the proverbs on the angler.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy defines the fish as pejesapo.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That fishes: un ave pescadora.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A fisherman or fisherwoman, by trade or as a hobby: Los pescadores salieron al amanecer.^[2][1]
2. The angler fish, the pejesapo.^[2][19]
3. (Latin America, usually in the plural) Trousers reaching to mid-calf.^[16]

Word family

• martín pescador

Related words

• pescar
• pez
• pescado
• pescadero
• Latin piscātor
• Italian pescatore

Usage notes

Anillo del Pescador is the Fisherman's Ring of the Pope, and martín pescador the kingfisher.^[11][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. pescador
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pescador
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. piscātor
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pez
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pescador
10. ^ a b c 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. pescador
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 242
12. ^ 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. 191
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 667
14. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 239
15. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 377
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pescador
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. pescador
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 772
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pescador
20. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1306