sombrero

Forms

sombrero m (plural sombreros)^[1] Old Spanish wrote sonbrero and sobrero beside sombrero.^[2] The Libro de Alexandre has solombrero and solombrera, and the form is found again in Torres Naharro.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish sombra + -ero, the hat being named for the shade it gives.^[4][1][5][6] García de Diego derives it instead from the verb sombrar.^[7] Corominas thinks the word was first applied to a hat with very broad brims, compared to a parasol, and notes that it also meant “parasol” (1495).^[8]

It is an innovation of Spanish and Portuguese, Portuguese sombreiro, already in the Cantigas, against the type descended from Late Latin cappellus in the other Romance languages,^[3] such as French chapeau and Italian cappello.^[9] Portuguese later took in the French word as chapéu, and kept the native word for “umbrella, sunshade” in Portuguese India.^[3]

sombra is an alteration of Latin umbra (“shadow, shade”).^[3] Its ⟨s-⟩, added only in Spanish and Portuguese, is probably due to the influence of sol and its derivatives, as the variant solombra shows.^[3] García de Diego places it under the Latin phrase for “under the shade”, a view Corominas rejects.^[7] De Vaan notes that the Latin noun is generally connected with a Lithuanian word for “shade”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has the modern sense.^[3][11] Félez Muñoz revives his cousins with water carried in his hat: Con un sonbrero que tiene Félez Muñoz, nuevo era e fresco, que de Valencia·l' sacó, cogió del agua “With a hat that Félez Muñoz had, new and fresh, which he had brought from Valencia, he took up water”.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

Thirteenth-century texts show the hat as protection: in the Vidal Mayor a man puts it on against the wind,^[11] and the Santander customs tariffs list it.^[3] Alfonso X's histories pair the sonbrero with the casquete, and speak of sombreros de bouz, shaped like the hats of the Magi.^[12] Nebrija rendered it with Latin words for a sunshade and a broad-brimmed travelling hat.^[13][14]

Autoridades described the hat of wool or, the finer ones, of camel hair or beaver, with a round brim, and gave two further senses: the canopy over a pulpit that throws back the voice, and the privilege of certain Spanish grandees of keeping their heads covered before the king.^[6] The Academy added the top of the capstan in 1899,^[15] and Alemany the cap of a mushroom in 1917.^[16] Today it also names the cap of skins that forms on fermenting must, and in football a move that lifts the ball over an opponent's head.^[4]

In the Americas, where it is recorded from 1513 in Puerto Rico,^[17] the word also names a chimney cowl in Chile and Argentina and, in slang, a condom in Guatemala and Bolivia.^[18] English took sombrero for a broad-brimmed hat of Mexico and South America in 1770, after an earlier sense “umbrella” in the 1590s.^[19] Many other languages borrowed it.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has sonbrero, a hat.^[3][11]
• c. 1225–1250 – the Razón de amor has the form sobrero.^[2]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor, the first record in a text without a later copy.^[11]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España pairs the sonbrero with the casquete.^[12]
• 1495 – the sense “parasol”.^[8]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1575 – the derivative sombrerer is already a Castilianism in Catalan.^[3]
• 1590s – English borrows the word in the sense “umbrella”.^[19]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the pulpit canopy and the grandees' privilege.^[6]
• 1770 – English uses sombrero for the broad-brimmed hat.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the nautical sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hat: a head covering made of a crown (copa) and a brim (ala).^[4][1]
2. An ornamental head covering worn by women.^[4][20]
3. The sounding board over a pulpit, which gathers the preacher's voice and prevents echoes.^[4]
4. (winemaking) The cap of skins and stalks that forms on the surface of fermenting must.^[4]
5. (historical) The privilege of the grandees of Spain to keep their heads covered before the king.^[4][6]
6. (botany) The cap of a mushroom.^[4][20]
7. (football) A move that lifts the ball gently over an opponent's head and controls it again as it comes down.^[4]
8. (nautical) The round wooden piece at the top of a capstan (cabrestante).^[4]
9. (Chile, Argentina) A cowl on a chimney or duct.^[18]
10. (Guatemala, Bolivia, slang) A condom.^[18]

Word family

• sombrerazo
• sombrerero
• sombrerillo
• sombrerito
• sombrerudo
• sombrerería
• sombrerete

Related words

• sombra
• sombrilla
• Portuguese sombreiro
• English sombrero

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
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. 5, 298
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. sombrero
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 654
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 148
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sub umbra
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sombra
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sombrero
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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
12. ^ 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. sombrero
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 418
14. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. sombrero
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 926
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1531
17. ^ 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. sombrero
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sombrero
19. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sombrero