rocho

Forms

rocho m (plural rochos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic رخ (ruḫḫ, “roc”), the name of the fabulous bird.^[2][3][4] Corominas explains the Spanish word as an alteration: apparently a learned transcription ⟨roch⟩ of the Arabic word, wrongly pronounced.^[2][3] Corriente traces the Arabic word, which also had an Andalusian form, to Persian رخ (roḫ) and Middle Persian rah (“war chariot”); he takes the bird's name and the chess piece roque “rook” to be the same word, by a metonymy.^[5][6]

The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived the Arabic word from an Assyrian word for a “mighty eagle”, an explanation Echegaray also gave.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word to about 1490.^[3] Corominas knew no Spanish example except an isolated one in the prologue of the Celestina, cited by Neuvonen, and concluded that it is a mispronounced learned word.^[2][9] The HSMS finds it in the editions of the Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea printed in Toledo in 1510, Seville in 1511 and later.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named only the legendary bird, of enormous size and strength.^[11][12] The Academy entered it in its dictionary of 1869, with the definition it still uses;^[12][7][2] Corominas dates it from the 1884 edition, which first gave an etymology.^[12][7][2] Moliner and the DLE treat it as a synonym of ruc.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1490 – the prologue of the Celestina, the only early record.^[3][2]
• 1510 – the Toledo edition of the Tragicomedia has the word.^[10]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary enters rocho.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds an etymology, from Arabic.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The roc, a fabulous bird said to be of huge size and extraordinary strength.^[11][4][1]

Related words

• ruc
• roque
• English roc

Usage notes

The same bird is also called ruc, which the DLE derives from Arabic ruẖẖ and this from Persian roẖ; the DLE defines ruc by rocho.^[13][14] Autoridades already had ruc in 1737, for an eagle-like bird able to lift an elephant.^[15] In Puerto Rico rocho, rocha is an unrelated adjective meaning “drunk”.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 49
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rocho
4. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rocho
5. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 426
6. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. roc
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 938
8. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 202
9. ^ Neuvonen, Eero K. (1941), Los arabismos del español en el siglo XIII (Studia Orientalia X.1), Helsinki: Societas Orientalis Fennica, p. 175
10. ^ a b 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. rocho
11. ^ 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. rocho
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 686
13. ^ 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. ruc
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ruc
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 649
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. rocho
17. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. rocho