racimo

Forms

racimo m (plural racimos)^[1] Old Spanish texts write razimo, rrazimo, rrasimo and rezimo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin racīmus, a variant of Latin racēmus (“bunch, cluster of grapes”).^[4][5][1][6] The form with /i/ is already found in Gregory the Great in the second half of the 6th century and in several glosses, and all the Romance languages continue it rather than the classical form.^[4] Corominas sees no easy explanation for it, since -imus is not a Latin suffix, and suggests it is an original variant of a word that is not Indo-European.^[4]

The same Latin word is Asturian recimo, Catalan raïm, Old Occitan razim and French raisin.^[7][8] Italian replaced it by the diminutive Italian racimolo, and Portuguese mostly by cacho; Portuguese racimo is less popular and, to judge by its ⟨c⟩, a modern loan from Spanish.^[4]

De Vaan considers the classical word probably a loan from a Mediterranean language, and compares Ancient Greek ῥάξ (rháx, “grape”), ῥώξ (rhṓx) and Albanian rrush.^[9] Wiktionary also considers it borrowed from an extinct Mediterranean language, and adds Persian رز (raz, “vine”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Libro de los buenos proverbios of the 13th century.^[4][5] The CDH dates it c. 1250, in a copy of the late 13th century, with rrazimos de uvas among the things that are good for human life.^[3] Alfonso X's Lapidario describes a stone shaped like a bunch of grapes: fecha en forma de razimo de uuas.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

Alonso de Palencia in 1490 defines the word as the small branch that holds the grapes, and says that some also call a single grape razimo; this sense “grape”, which Latin had too, is not used today but lives on in Catalan and French.^[4] Nebrija distinguishes the bunch of grapes, of ivy and of dates.^[4]

Autoridades defines it as the bunch of grapes hanging from the vine shoot, by extension of other fruit, by analogy any cluster of small things, and in familiar style a hanged man.^[11][12] The thieves' cant had the same sense in 1609.^[13] The Academy added the botanical sense in 1884 and gave its modern definition, flowers or fruit on a common axis with stalks of nearly equal length, in 1899.^[14][15] Alemany in 1917 also records an architectural sense: a pyramidal ornament hanging like a stalactite from Moorish coffered ceilings.^[16]

In Puerto Rico the word names the whole bunch of plantains or bananas.^[17] Modern Spanish has bomba de racimo “cluster bomb”.^[6][18]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – rrazimos de uvas in the Libro de los buenos proverbios (in a late 13th-century copy).^[3][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a stone to a bunch of grapes.^[10]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia defines the word, also as “grape”.^[4]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1609 – the thieves' cant uses racimo for a hanged man.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives the senses “bunch of grapes”, “cluster of small things” and “hanged man”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the botanical sense and the etymology from Latin racemus.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bunch of grapes held on one stalk that hangs from the vine shoot.^[6][1][20]
2. A cluster of other fruit held on a common axis: La palmera estaba cargada de racimos maduros.^[6][21]
3. A cluster of small things arranged somewhat like a bunch of grapes.^[6][20]
4. (botany) A raceme: flowers or fruit on a common axis, with stalks of nearly equal length that are longer than the flowers, as in the vine.^[6][20]

Word family

• racimoso
• arracimarse

Related words

• Latin racemus
• Catalan raïm
• French raisin

Usage notes

In older familiar speech and in the thieves' cant, racimo was also a hanged man.^[11][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. racimo
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 746
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. racimo
6. ^ 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. racimo
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5386
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 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. racimo
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, 480
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
13. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 196
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. 893
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 838
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1408
17. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. racimo
18. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. racimo
19. ^ 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. racimo
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. racimo
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. racimo