pista

Forms

pista f (plural pistas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian pista (“track, footprint”), a dialectal form of pesta with the same sense, properly “footprints”.^[2][3][1] Nocentini explains it as a southern variant of that word, which comes from pestare (“to tread, pound”).^[4] Bénaben derives the Italian verb from Late Latin pistō (“to tread down”), whose stem is that of the past participle of Latin pīnsō (“to pound, crush”).^[5][6]

The word passed from Italian into French piste, where it came to mean a horse's hoofprints and then the beaten ground of a riding track or racecourse;^[7][8][9] Spanish took the word from Italian and later also acquired the French senses.^[4] Corominas groups it with pistón, from pistone, a variant of pestone (“pestle”).^[2]

Older dictionaries proposed other origins: the Academy in 1884 and 1899 derived it from a Latin participle meaning “pounded”, and Alemany in 1917 from a verb pistar.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first reliable record in the CDH is in Bernardino de Mendoza's Teórica y práctica de guerra (1595), on troops in ambush who must sweep the ground with branches para borrar la pista “to wipe out the track”.^[10] The BDELC dates the word to 1737, the year of the Autoridades volume that defines it as the trail animals leave, by which they are followed.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

From the 17th century to the mid-19th, Spanish dictionaries gave only the sense “track or trail left by animals”.^[11][12] Domínguez in 1846–1847 noted the figurative use in seguir la pista a alguno “to dog someone's steps”.^[13] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 added the ground on which horses run in riding schools, circuses and racecourses, and that of 1899 the sense “set of clues that may lead to the discovery of a fact”.^[7][8] The first records from the Americas are of the late 19th century, from Puerto Rico (1882), Colombia and Mexico, with the hunting and circus senses.^[14]

The 20th century brought the spaces for sports and dancing, the airfield runway, the motorway (now usually autopista) and the track of a magnetic tape or disk.^[3] In Peru pista is the roadway of a street, and in the Canaries an unpaved track for vehicles.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1440–1447 – Italian pista “footprint” is first recorded.^[17]
• 1595 – Bernardino de Mendoza uses pista for the track left by troops.^[10]
• 1641 – Pellicer de Ossau writes of men following the pistas of the Marquis of Los Vélez.^[10]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the trail of animals.^[11][2]
• 1882 – first record in the Americas, from Puerto Rico, in seguir la pista.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the riding-school, circus and racecourse sense.^[7]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “set of clues”.^[8]
• 1925 – the derivative despistar is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. track, trail: the marks that animals or people leave on the ground where they have passed.^[3][1]
2. A clue; a set of signs that may lead to finding something out: La policía sigue una pista nueva.^[3][1]
3. A marked-out area for races, games or competitions: a racetrack, a tennis court.^[3][1]
4. A dance floor.^[3]
5. The ring or floor where circus or cabaret artists perform.^[3]
6. A cart road built for military purposes.^[3]
7. (aviation) A runway.^[3][1]
8. A motorway (autopista); (Peru) the roadway of a street.^[3][15]
9. Each of the parallel bands of a magnetic tape or disk on which information is recorded separately; a track of a recording.^[3][1]
10. The path along which a part of a mechanical device runs.^[3]

Word family

• autopista
• despistar

Related words

• pistón
• pisar
• Italian pista
• French piste

Usage notes

The phrase seguir la pista a alguien means, colloquially, to follow or spy on someone.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pisto
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. pista
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. pista
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. pista
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 836
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 785
9. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1329
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pista
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 283
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 567
13. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1384
14. ^ a b 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. pista
15. ^ 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. pista
16. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. pista
17. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. pista