porquero

Forms

porquero m (plural porqueros, feminine porquera, feminine plural porqueras)^[1]

Etymology

The DLE, Wiktionary and García de Diego give it as inherited from Late Latin porcārius (“swineherd”), a derivative of porcus (“pig”).^[2][1][3][4] The DHLE instead analyses it as a Spanish formation, from Spanish puerco + -ero, and Wiktionary notes the same surface analysis;^[1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of puerco.^[5][1][6][7]

The Latin noun gave Portuguese porqueiro, Galician porqueiro, Catalan porquer, French porcher, Italian porcaio and Romanian porcar.^[8][3]

The Latin word for pig goes back to *porkos and *pórḱos, which de Vaan explains as “digger”, from a root meaning “to dig up”; its cognates include fearh “piglet”.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE's first record is a charter of 1238 in which Teobaldo I of Navarre grants the Hospital of Roncesvalles exemption for its pigs, with the sense “person who looks after pigs”.^[5] The DEMel has the Aragonese forms porchero in charters of Huesca from 1178, and porquer beside porquero.^[10] The Old Spanish Textual Archive finds it in the Vidal mayor, the Aragonese law code (1261–1280).^[11] Corominas dates the word 1438 and the DCECH cites Nebrija.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “swineherd”.^[5][2] Nebrija gave the Latin suarius, porcarius and subulcus.^[12] In 1515–1516 Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo already had porqueros among their workers.^[13] Autoridades (1737) defined it by the synonym porquerizo, quoting Quevedo, and the Academy kept that cross-reference until the 20th century.^[14][5][15] The DHLE notes that in the Americas the diphthongised puerquero is the commoner form, and that in Colombia and Ecuador it also means a man who slaughters pigs, recorded from 1964.^[5] The feminine porquera names a lair of wild boars, and lanza porquera a boar spear.^[2]

Timeline

• 1178 – Aragonese porchero in a charter of Huesca.^[10]
• 1238 – porquero in a charter of Teobaldo I of Navarre.^[5]
• 1261–1280 – in the Vidal mayor.^[11]
• 1438 – Corominas's date.^[7]
• 1492 – first in a dictionary, Nebrija's Latin–Spanish Dictionarium.^[5]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1737 – first in the Academy's dictionary, in Autoridades.^[5]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin porcarius.^[16]
• 1964 – the Colombian sense “pig slaughterer” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A swineherd, a person who looks after pigs.^[2][5][1]
2. (Colombia, Ecuador) A person who slaughters pigs, usually in the form puerquero.^[5]
3. (feminine, porquera) A lair where wild boars bed down in the woods.^[2]

Related words

• puerco
• porquerizo
• porqueriza
• Latin porcārius
• Portuguese porqueiro

Usage notes

The usual synonym is porquerizo.^[17][18] The form puerquero, with the diphthong of puerco, is mainly American.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. porquero
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5152
4. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. porquero
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 675
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puerco
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. porcārius
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. porquero
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 399
13. ^ 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. porquero
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 799
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 850
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. porquero
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. porquero