rastro

Forms

rastro m (plural rastros)^[1] Old Spanish wrote rastro and rrastro.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rastrum (“drag-hoe, rake”).^[3][4][5][1] The sense moved from the rake to the marks it leaves on the ground.^[3][4] From these it passed to any track or trail.^[3][4][6] The same Latin word is Portuguese rastro (with the dissimilated rasto), Galician rastro, Catalan rastre and Italian rastro.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The Latin noun is formed from rādō (“to scrape”) with the suffix -trum.^[11][1] De Vaan notes that the long vowel of the noun is unproven, so that its exact pre-form is uncertain.^[12] The family is found only in Italic and Celtic, and its Indo-European origin is uncertain.^[12]

The Academy derived the word from arrastrar in 1884 and 1899, and Alemany in 1917 returned to the Latin source, as the DLE does now.^{[13][14][15][5]} García de Diego derives the sense “track” from rastrar.^[16] Covarrubias had linked it to Latin verbs meaning “to scrape” and “to drag”.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the word already means “track, trail”: dezildes que prendan el rastro e piensen de andar “tell them to take up our trail and set off”.^[18][3] The first record in a contemporary manuscript, the Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235), has the older sense of a farm tool for gathering straw.^[18]

Semantic evolution

The sense “track” has been the usual one in every period, and Old Spanish also used the word for a retinue or train of followers.^[3][19] Nebrija distinguished the track of footprints from the track followed by scent.^[3][20] The tool sense is rarer in Castilian, though it lives on in Asturian for a harrow.^[3]

From the mid-16th century rastro meant a slaughterhouse;^[21] Covarrubias explained the name by the carcasses being dragged from the pen to the hooks, and the Quijote has pots that each held un rastro de carne.^[3][17][22] The Academy recorded the market where meat was sold wholesale by 1817, and the DCECH notes the sense of a place where second-hand dealers gather, as in Madrid's Rastro.^[21][3][5] Corominas suggests that these senses come rather from the old “retinue”, in its sense of an army's baggage and provisions.^[3] Covarrubias also explained the title alcaldes del rastro as judges who track down the evidence of a crime.^[17]

In Cuba it can mean a shop selling building materials, and in Panama a lot where used car parts and scrap are sold.^[23]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for a trail.^[18][4]
• 1223 – the earliest dated text in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[24]
• c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá uses it for a farm tool.^[18]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for the train of an army.^[19]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[25]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the slaughterhouse and the alcaldes del rastro.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as the mark left on the ground by anything that has passed.^[22]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the wholesale meat market and the rastro de la corte.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rake (rastrillo).^[5][26][1]
2. A tool like a hoe with strong teeth instead of a blade, used to spread broken stone.^[5]
3. A trace or sign left by an event: Del viejo puente no queda rastro alguno.^[5][26]
4. (viticulture) A vine layer (mugrón).^[5][1]
5. (historical) A place in a town where meat was sold wholesale on certain days.^[5]
6. A slaughterhouse (matadero).^[5][1]
7. A track or trail left by someone or something: El perro siguió el rastro del jabalí hasta el río.^[5][1]
8. (Spain) A street market of old and new goods, especially Madrid's Rastro; a flea market.^[5][1]

Word family

• rastrear
• rastrero
• arrastrar
• rastrar
• rastra

Related words

• raer
• Latin rastrum
• Portuguese rasto
• Catalan rastre

Usage notes

Rastro de la corte was the territory under the jurisdiction of the court magistrates, the alcaldes de corte.^[5][21] Common phrases are seguir el rastro and perder el rastro.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. rastro
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 789
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rastro
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. rastro
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. rastro
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2835
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rasto
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 117
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7079
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 898
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 843
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1416
16. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. rastrum
17. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1247
18. ^ 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. rastro
19. ^ 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. rastro
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 405
21. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 729
22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 495
23. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. rastro
24. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. rastro
25. ^ 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. rastro
26. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rastro