puchero

Forms

puchero m (plural pucheros)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pultārius (“cooking pot”), properly a pot for puls (“porridge”), formed with the suffix -ārius.^{[2][1][3][4][5]} Corominas treats it as a derivative of the same Latin noun as puches “porridge”, from pultēs, the plural of the same noun, and notes that the Latin word survives only in Castilian.^[6] The REW and García de Diego likewise list only Spanish outcomes: the headword, glossed “tall cooking pot”, and the older puchera “pot”.^[7][8]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *polti- for the Latin noun.^[9] The noun looks like a loan from Ancient Greek πόλτος (póltos, “porridge”), but Greek nouns of that class usually keep their stem type in Latin, so both may go back to a common base *polt-, perhaps related to the root of pollen “fine flour”, itself possibly a Mediterranean loanword.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Moamín, the book on hunting animals translated by Abraham de Toledo (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century): a remedy tells the falconer to crush a head of garlic and put it en un puchero with half a pound of figs.^[10] Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1280) uses it in a proverb about the weak and the powerful: que compannia aura el puchero con la grand olla, ca si se ferire, crebara el puchero “what company will the pot keep with the great cauldron? If they knock together, the pot will break”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija gave Latin pultarius for the earthenware pot and already recorded pucheros for the puffed cheeks of someone about to cry.^[6] Covarrubias in 1611 explained the gesture: children about to weep swell their cheeks like the bulging pot; he also recorded comer su puchero “to be content with one's lot”.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades of 1737 gave the three senses of the pot, the stew cooked in it and the gesture before crying.^[13]

The Academy's 1817 edition added “one's daily food” and puchero de enfermo, a stew without vegetables for invalids; in 1843 it defined the stew as made mostly of meat, bacon, chickpeas and pulses.^[14][15] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1541 in Michoacán.^[16] It names a stew of beef with vegetables and corn in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, a mixed meat dish in Colombia and, in Argentina, an ashtray; in the Canaries it is a stew of meat, chickpeas, potatoes and squash.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1250 – first record, in the Moamín (copy of the second half of the 13th century).^[10]
• c. 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses the proverb of the pot and the cauldron.^[11]
• 1438 – the Corbacho of the Archpriest of Talavera has the diminutive pucheruelos.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the pot and the gesture of crying; the BDELC dates the word from his dictionary.^[6][5]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, in Michoacán.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains hacer pucheritos by the shape of the pot.^[12]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades has the pot, the stew and the gesture.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “daily food” and puchero de enfermo.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the word from puches; in 1899 it gives Latin pultarius.^[19][20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cooking pot of earthenware or other material, with a small base, a bulging body, a wide neck and one handle; by extension, other kinds of pot.^[2][21]
2. A stew of meat, chickpeas and vegetables, like the Spanish cocido.^[2][1]
3. (colloquial) One's daily food, one's living: Con ese sueldo apenas llega para el puchero.^[2][21]
4. (colloquial, usually plural) The face a person makes just before crying: La niña empezó a hacer pucheros.^[2][1]
5. (Argentina) An ashtray.^[17]

Word family

• pucherazo
• pucherete
• pucheruelo

Related words

• puches
• puchera
• Latin pultārius
• Latin puls

Usage notes

Hacer pucheros is to pull the face that comes before crying.^[21][1] Empinar el puchero meant to have enough to live on decently, and puchero de enfermo is a plain stew for invalids, also something stale and pointless.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. puchero
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. puchero
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puches
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 670
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pultārius
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5276
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, p. s.v. puls
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. puchero
11. ^ 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. puchero
12. ^ 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. 1234
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 421
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 712
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 596
16. ^ 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. puchero
17. ^ 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. puchero
18. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. puchero
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 876
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 821
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puchero