rapaz

Forms

rapaz m or f (masculine and feminine plural rapaces)^[1] The feminine of the noun is rapaza “young girl”; the adjective has one form for both genders.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rapāx (“grasping, rapacious”) in the view of most sources, probably taken over in a semi-learned form that kept the Latin /p/.^[4][2] Corominas holds that the noun, which in the Middle Ages meant a servant, groom or squire's boy and was strongly contemptuous, is the same word as the adjective, named for the proverbial thieving of lackeys and camp servants.^[4] Bénaben, Cunha and Nascentes explain the Portuguese and Spanish noun in the same way.^[5][6][7] Wiktionary calls the word a learned borrowing from Latin.^[1]

Menéndez Pidal and Cejador derived it from rapar “to shave, crop”,^[8][9] and García de Diego also separates it from the adjective and takes it from the same verb, with the idea of a cropped-headed boy.^[10] Autoridades and the Academy's edition of 1884 took the noun from Latin repere (“to crawl”), while Covarrubias in 1611 reported that some traced the word to Arabic.^[3][11][12] Meyer-Lübke found the Spanish and Portuguese noun and its relatives hard to explain.^[13]

The popular outcome of the Latin adjective, with /b/ for intervocalic /p/, was Old Spanish rabaz; the old Leonese of Lucas Fernández's farces had rabaz for the wolf.^[13][10] Meyer-Lübke suggests that the phrase Old Galician-Portuguese lobo rabaz (“ravening wolf”) explains the loss of the consonant in Portuguese roaz “porpoise”, from which Spanish has arroaz.^[13][10] The noun “boy” has the same form in Portuguese rapaz, Galician rapaz and Asturian rapaz, while French rapace and Italian rapace are learned forms of the adjective.^{[6][14][1][15]}

The Latin adjective is formed from rapiō (“to seize, carry off”) with the suffix -āx “inclined to”.^[16][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *rapi- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁r̥p-i- “to seize”, comparing Ancient Greek ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai, “to devour, snatch away”).^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has the noun as a term of contempt for the army's servant boys: Non ý ovo rapaz que non messó su pulgada “there was not a servant boy who did not pull out his inch of beard”.^[18][4][8] In the Fuero Juzgo (c. 1250–1260) the rapazes are the grooms who look after the beasts of the royal household.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Through the Middle Ages and still in the 16th century the noun usually meant a lackey, servant or squire's boy, with a strongly pejorative sense.^[4][19] Portuguese rapaz likewise meant a page in the 13th century.^[20] Already in Berceo it could mean simply a child, and Alfonso X's Estoria de España has a man leave the camp disguised en guisa de rapaz “as a boy”.^[21][22] Corominas dates the sense “small boy” to 1605.^[4] Percyvall's dictionary of 1591 still glosses it as “a soldiers boy, a boy”.^[23]

The adjective “given to robbery” was taken from Latin again in the second quarter of the 16th century.^[19] Autoridades gave both senses, the adjective with a quotation about the harpies, “very rapacious birds”.^[3] The Academy added the zoological sense, birds of prey and their order, in 1899.^[24] Salvá recorded rapaz in Soria for a shepherd's boy.^[25] Today the noun is literary or regional, and Wiktionary labels it dated or humorous.^[26][1] In Asturian rapaz is the ordinary word for an adolescent.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses rapaz for a servant boy of the army.^[18][4]
• 1246–1252 – Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora uses it for a child.^[18][21]
• c. 1250–1260 – the Fuero Juzgo calls the king's grooms rapazes.^[18]
• 1563 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[27]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a soldiers boy, a boy”.^[23]
• 1605 – the sense “young boy” is established.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the name by the child's wish to grab everything it sees.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades enters the adjective “rapacious” and the noun “small boy”.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy records the proverb no te fíes de rapaces.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the birds of prey.^[24]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Given to robbery, theft or plunder (rapiña); rapacious: un prestamista rapaz y sin escrúpulos.^[2][1]
2. (zoology) Of the birds of prey; as a feminine noun, a bird of prey, and in the plural the group of these birds: el halcón peregrino es una rapaz veloz.^[2][26][1]

Noun

1. (literary or regional) A young boy (muchacho), a lad; feminine rapaza, a young girl: Los rapaces jugaban en la plaza.^[28][26][1]

Word family

• rapazuelo
• rapacejo
• rapagón

Related words

• rapacidad
• rapiña
• rapto
• Latin rapax
• Portuguese rapaz

Usage notes

The proverb cuida bien lo que haces, no te fíes de rapaces warns against trusting the inexperienced with serious business.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. rapaz
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 489
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rapaz
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. rapaz
6. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2830
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rapaz
8. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 411
9. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 356
10. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. rapax
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 897
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. 1246
13. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. rapaz
15. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rapace
16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
18. ^ 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. rapaz
19. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 662
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rapaz
21. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 641
22. ^ 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. rapaz
23. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 199
24. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 841
25. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 912
26. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rapaz
27. ^ 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. rapace
28. ^ 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. rapaz2