popa

Forms

popa f (plural popas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish popa, inherited from Vulgar Latin *puppa, from Latin puppis (“stern of a ship”).^[2][3][4][1] The Romance forms all end in -a: Corominas explains this by the feminine gender of the Latin noun and perhaps by the influence of its opposite, prōra (“prow”).^[2] The Academy gives the same two reasons, and Wiktionary also names the influence of the word for the prow as possible.^[4][1]

The word was inherited by Italian, Occitan and the three Ibero-Romance languages: Italian poppa, Occitan popa, Catalan popa and Portuguese popa.^[2][5] In French, French poupe is not a popular word and looks like a loan; the DHLF takes it from Genoese.^[2][6]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin noun.^[7] Wiktionary reports Pokorny's comparison with Polish pupa (“bottom, rear”) and Ancient Greek πύματος (púmatos, “the last”), which it treats as uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Alfonso de Palencia's Latin–Spanish vocabulary of 1490, which glosses Latin puppis as la popa de la noa “the stern of the ship”.^[2][3] The word is older: Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250, in a 13th-century manuscript) speaks of a bright star en la popa de la naf “in the stern of the ship”, in the constellation of the ship.^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been the ordinary name of the back part of a ship.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 described it as the place where the captain stood and arms were kept, and recorded the phrase dar viento en popa for going prosperously.^[11] The 1737 volume of the Autoridades added de popa a proa “wholly, entirely” and the figurative viento en popa for an affair that goes forward smoothly.^[12]

From 1817 the Academy also gave an obsolete sense, the seat facing forward in a horse-drawn carriage (testera).^[13][14][4] The DLE now defines the word more broadly as the rear of a boat and, by extension, of other vehicles.^[4] Colloquially the word names a person's buttocks: Moliner marks the sense as jocular, and it is recorded in Cuba, Chile, Andalusia and the argot of Spain.^{[15][16][17][18]} In Nicaragua popa means a balloon, a soap bubble and a blister.^[4][17]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has la popa de la naf.^[8][9]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin puppis and the phrase viento en popa.^[19]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata.^[20]
• 1587 – the derivative popés, a stay of the mast, in García de Palacio.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records dar viento en popa.^[11]
• 1737 – the Autoridades has de popa a proa and viento en popa.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin puppis for the first time.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stern or poop of a ship or boat, the rear part opposite the proa; by extension, the back of other vehicles.^[4][1]
2. (Nicaragua) A balloon (globo); also a soap bubble or a blister.^[4][17]
3. (colloquial, jocular) The buttocks of a person.^[15][17]
4. (obsolete) In horse-drawn carriages, the seat in which one rides facing forward.^[4]

Word family

• popés
• empopar

Related words

• proa
• Latin puppis
• Italian poppa
• French poupe

Usage notes

Set phrases include viento en popa “with a following wind; prosperously” and de popa a proa “from stem to stern, entirely”.^[4][12] In the CDH, the earliest hits for popa are forms of a verb, not this noun: so in Berceo and in the proverb quien su enemigo popa a sus manos muere (1293).^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 610
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. popa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. popa
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. puppis
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. poupe
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. popa
9. ^ 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. popa
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. popa
11. ^ 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. 1222
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 322
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 689
14. ^ 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. 849
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. popa
16. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 430
17. ^ 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. popa
18. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 499
19. ^ 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. popa
20. ^ 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. popa