redondo

Forms

redondo (feminine redonda, masculine plural redondos, feminine plural redondas)^[1] Regional forms include Ribagorzan redono, Pyrenean retuno, Murcian riondo and the Mozarabic retondo of Granada.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin retundus, a dissimilated variant of Latin rotundus (“round, wheel-shaped”).^[3][1][4] Corominas holds that every Romance form starts from this variant, even Catalan rodó and Italian rotondo, which were once redon and ritondo; the Catalan and Old French forms with ⟨o⟩ in the first syllable changed it again, and the modern Italian word is a learned remodelling.^[3] The other cognates are Portuguese redondo, Galician redondo, Asturian redondu, French rond and Romanian rătund.^[5][1][6] Wiktionary notes that the variant is attested from the 7th century.^[1]

Benveniste argued that the form with /e/ is the older one, a verbal adjective of a pre-literary verb meaning “to run” related to Old Irish reithid (“runs”), and that the classical vowel /o/ came from rota (“wheel”).^[3] Ernout and Meillet rejected this in favour of dissimilation, and Corominas finds both equally possible from the Romance side.^[3] De Vaan derives the classical adjective either from a present stem meaning “to run, roll”, with its vowel taken from the noun for “wheel”, or from a lost o-grade present.^[7] The noun itself goes back to *Hret- (“to run, roll”).^[7]

The learned doublet rotundo was taken from the Latin word in 1580, and rotonda came from Italian.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1020 in Oelschläger's list.^[3][8] The Cantar de mio Cid has otero redondo, “round hill”, in line 554.^[9][3] In Alfonso X's Lapidario it describes circular or spherical shapes.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has been in general use at every period.^[3] Nebrija gave Latin rotundus and orbiculus for it.^[11][3] Autoridades (1737) added two figurative senses: a person of equally noble descent on all four sides of the family (hidalgo redondo), and one free of debts and cares.^[12] The Academy's 1817 edition also has a noun redondo “coin, money” and a thieves' slang sense “skirt”, and the 1843 edition adds the round printing type and enclosed pasture land that is not held in common.^[13][14]

Modern Spanish uses it for anything perfect or complete, as in negocio redondo, and for a round number without fractions.^[15][16] In Cuba hombre redondo meant an honest man, and earlier one of pure descent on all sides; in Argentina gaucho redondo meant an illiterate.^[3][17] Across the Americas it means “return” of a trip, in Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and the United States, and “dull, slow to learn” in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Bolivia.^[18] In Spain redondo is also a cut of beef.^[16][19]

Timeline

• 1020 – first record, in a charter of Oelschläger's list.^[3][8]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has otero redondo “round hill”.^[9]
• c. 1250 – redondez “roundness” appears in the Setenario.^[3][8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of circular and spherical shapes.^[10]
• 1369 – redondel, from Old French reondel, in an Aragonese inventory.^[3][8]
• 1516 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1580 – the learned doublet rotundo.^[8]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records redondear and redondez.^[21]
• 1737 – Autoridades records hidalgo redondo.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. rotundus”.^[22]

Meanings

Adjective

1. round, circular or nearly so: Pusieron una mesa redonda en el patio.^[16][1]
2. spherical or nearly so.^[16]
3. Of land: enclosed as private pasture and not common.^[16]
4. Of a person: of the same descent on all four sides of the family.^[16]
5. Clear, plain, outright: Le contestó con un no redondo.^[16][19]
6. Perfect, complete, very successful: un negocio redondo.^[16][15][1]
7. Of a number: whole, rounded off, without fractions.^[15][1]
8. (Latin America) Of a trip: return, there and back.^[18]

Noun

1. Something circular or spherical.^[16]
2. (Spain) A roughly cylindrical cut of beef next to the contratapa.^[16][19]
3. (colloquial) Ordinary money.^[16]

Word family

• redondear
• redondez
• redondilla
• carirredondo
• redondamente

Related words

• redonda
• rotundo
• rotonda
• redondel
• rueda
• Latin rotundus
• Portuguese redondo

Usage notes

A la redonda means “round about, in a circle around”, and en redondo “in a circle”: no hay una casa en diez kilómetros a la redonda.^[16][14] In bullfighting a pase redondo is one in which the matador turns on his feet and makes the bull go round him.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5752
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 834
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. redondo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. rotundus
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. redondo
9. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. redondo
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. redondo
11. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 406
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 532
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 739
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 619
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. redondo
16. ^ 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. redondo
17. ^ Ortiz, Fernando (1923), Un catauro de cubanismos: apuntes lexicográficos, La Habana, p. 30
18. ^ 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. redondo
19. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. redondo
20. ^ 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. redondo
21. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1251
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 909
23. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 533