raigal

Forms

raigal m or f (masculine and feminine plural raigales)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rādīcālis (“having roots”), from rādīx (“root”), in the analysis of the DLE, Wiktionary and García de Diego.^[2][1][3] The Latin adjective is post-classical, used by Saint Augustine.^[4] The REW lists the Spanish word with Old French rachau (“rootstock”) among its outcomes, glossing it as the butt end of a log.^[5] García de Diego notes that radical is the learned form of the same word.^[3] Corominas lists the word among the derivatives of raíz, without a separate etymon.^[6]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wrād-ī- and Proto-Indo-European *ur(e)h₂-d-iH- (“root”) for the Latin noun, with cognates in Welsh gwraidd (“roots”), Old English wyrt and Old Norse rót.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the 17th century from the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[6] Autoridades (1737) defines it as “belonging to the root” and, among timber merchants, the end of a log that was nearest the root, quoting Ardemans on timber that must be squared assí por las puntas, como por el raigal “both at the tips and at the butt”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word long kept both uses: Terreros glossed it simply as “belonging to the root”, and the Academy's 1884 edition gave the timber sense as entre madereros.^[9][10] Late 19th-century technical texts use it for the buried parts of a lightning conductor, the butt of a telegraph pole and the lower end of a cutting.^[11] In the 20th century writers in Spain and the Americas took it up in the figurative sense “deep-rooted, essential”: a Cuban critic writes of a cubanía raigal, and a Puerto Rican text of 1978 of a afroantillanidad raigal.^[11][12][1]

Timeline

• 1600s – first record, according to Corominas.^[6]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the adjective and the timber merchants' noun.^[8]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros glosses it as “belonging to the root”.^[9]
• 1881 – first hit in the CDH corpus, in a manual for glaziers and tinsmiths, for parts of a lightning conductor.^[11]
• 1888 – a manual on telegraph lines measures poles desde el raigal á la cogolla “from the butt to the top”.^[11]
• 1917 – Alemany derives it from Latin radix.^[13]
• 1978 – figurative use in Puerto Rico.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the root.^[2][14]
2. Deep-rooted, fundamental: una tradición raigal del pueblo.^[1][11]

Noun

1. (forestry) Among timber merchants, the butt of a log, the end that was nearest the root.^[2][14]

Related words

• raíz
• radical
• raigambre
• raigón
• arraigar
• Latin rādīx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. raigal
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5394
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. rādīcālis
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. radicālis
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 755
7. ^ 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. rādīx
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 483
9. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 274
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 894
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. raigal
12. ^ 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. raigal
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1410
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. raigal