prado

Forms

prado m (plural prados)^[1] Popular Castilian, Asturian and Riojan speech has prao, and the Asturian of Lena preu.^[2] Old Spanish texts also have plado and the feminine prada.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prātum (“meadow”).^[5][6][7][1] The Latin word lives on in all the Romance languages: Portuguese prado, Galician prado, Asturian prau, Catalan prat, French pré, Italian prato and Romanian prat.^[8][2][1]

The Latin noun goes back to *prāto-, and its further origin is uncertain.^[9] An old comparison with Old Irish ráith (“earthen rampart”) fits neither in sense nor in form; de Vaan prefers Steinbauer's suggestion of *prh₃-to- (“what has been allotted”), which makes better sense.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a charter of 938 in Oelschläger's list of first records, and then to Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora.^[5][6] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) tells Pharaoh's dream of seven fat, handsome cows that came out of the river e pacian en el prado, “and grazed in the meadow”.^[11] In the Razón de amor the poet rests his head on a meadow: Sobre un prado pus mi tiesta.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has been in general use since the Middle Ages.^[5] Alfonso X's legal prose defines meadows as the land from which people take a yield by mowing the hay.^[12][13] Autoridades (1737) has two senses: a level, uncultivated plot where grass grows to feed livestock, and a pleasant tree-lined place near a city used for walks, such as the Prado of Madrid.^[13] The Academy's 1899 edition added land where grass is sown, and the phrase a prado for an animal grazing in the open.^[14]

Derivatives followed: pradería in Fray Luis de Granada about 1580, pradera in 1607, which has become the usual word for a large meadow.^[5][6] In much of Spanish America, above all Argentina, prado has gone out of everyday speech and potrero has replaced it.^[5] In Guatemala and Colombia it names a lawn of short, dense grass, as in Chile, while in Argentina it is a lively folk courtship dance.^[15][16] In Dominican baseball it is the outfield beyond the bases.^[17]

Timeline

• 938 – first record, in a charter of Oelschläger's list.^[5][6]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy, uses it of the meadow where Pharaoh's cows graze.^[11]
• 13th century – Berceo uses it again and again in the Milagros de Nuestra Señora.^[5][18]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's legal prose speaks of meadows where hay is mown.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives prado para ierva as Latin pratum.^[19]
• 1533 – first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[20]
• c. 1580 – the derivative pradería appears in Fray Luis de Granada.^[5]
• 1607 – first record of pradera.^[6]
• 1737 – Autoridades records the sense “tree-lined promenade”, citing the Prado of Madrid.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. pratum”.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A meadow: damp or irrigated land where grass grows or is sown as pasture for livestock: Las ovejas pacían en un prado junto al arroyo.^[7][1]
2. A pleasant open space used as a promenade in some towns.^[7][22]
3. (Chile, Guatemala, Colombia) A lawn; short, thick grass covering the ground.^[16][15]
4. (Argentina) A folk courtship dance in which the couples cross the floor several times and end with a crowning.^[15]
5. (Dominican Republic, baseball) Each zone of the outfield beyond the bases.^[17]

Word family

• pradera
• empradizar
• pradería
• pradal

Related words

• pratense
• Latin prātum
• Catalan prat

Usage notes

Set phrases include prado de guadaña, a meadow mown once a year, and a prado, of an animal grazing in the field.^[7][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5206
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. prado
4. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. s.v. prado
5. ^ 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, 630
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prado
7. ^ a b c d 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. prado
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pratum
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ 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. prado
12. ^ 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. prado
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 345
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 804
15. ^ 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. prado
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prado
17. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. prado
18. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. prado
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. prado
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. prado
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 856
22. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. prado