tórtola

Forms

tórtola f (plural tórtolas)^[1] Berceo wrote tórtora;^[2][3] Corominas's first record of tórtola is Juan Manuel's, of 1326.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tórtora, inherited from Latin turtur (“turtle dove”).^[2][3][1] The Old Spanish form became the modern one by dissimilation of the two /r/ sounds.^[1] The Latin noun was feminine, and this gave it a final -a in almost every Romance language, from Romanian to Castilian; only Old Galician-Portuguese tortor and Old Occitan tortor kept the Latin ending.^[2][4] The vowel between the stressed syllable and the last one survives, as is regular in Castilian in this position.^[2]

The same word is Catalan tórtora, Italian tortora, Old French tourtre and Romanian turtură.^[5][6] In Catalan the syncopated tortra is the older form, recorded in 1262.^[5]

The Latin noun is an imitative word, a reduplication that copies the bird's cooing, like murmur and upupa (“hoopoe”).^[7][1][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the form tórtora in Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa, which describes the offerings of the Old Law.^[2][3] Alfonso X's Lapidario compares other birds in size to turtle doves: unas aues tamannas como tortolas “some birds as big as turtle doves”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning in every period.^[2] The diminutive tortoliella appears in the Alfonsine General estoria among the offerings of the poor, a lamb, a young pigeon or a small turtle dove,^[10] and tortolilla is recorded from about 1335.^[3] The masculine tórtolo dates from the 17th century.^[2][3] Nebrija in about 1495 gave both tórtola and tortolilla and translated arrullarse la tórtola, “to coo”.^[11]

In the Americas the conquerors gave the name to local doves from the first years: in Tierra Firme in 1515 there were so many tórtolas that a crossbowman who brought back fewer than fifty was thought a poor shot.^[12] Today it names the eared dove in the Andes, Chile and Paraguay, and in Argentina and Uruguay it is another name for the cuculí.^[13] In Chile hacérsele a uno una tórtola meant to tear one's trousers at the knee, perhaps from the fall of a shot dove.^[14] Echegaray also records the word as a term of endearment.^[15]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – tórtora in Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – the Alfonsine Lapidario has the plural tortolas.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – the diminutive tortoliella in the General estoria.^[10]
• 1326 – Juan Manuel's Libro del cavallero has the form tórtola.^[2]
• c. 1335 – tortolilla is recorded.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses tórtola and tortolilla with Latin turtur.^[11]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[12]
• 1571 – Molina's Nahuatl vocabulary translates cocotli as tórtola.^[16]
• 17th century – the masculine tórtolo appears.^[2][3]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin turtur.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The turtle dove, Streptopelia turtur, a small dove with ash-blue head, reddish-brown back and a black-and-white patch on the neck, a summer visitor to Spain; also the collared dove.^[18][19][1]
2. A domesticated dove of foreign origin, similar to it but of a reddish-grey colour.^[18]
3. (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay) The eared dove, Zenaida auriculata.^[13]
4. (Argentina, Uruguay) The cuculí, a small grey dove.^[13][20]

Word family

• tórtolo
• tortolito
• tortolilla
• atortolar

Related words

• Latin turtur
• Catalan tórtora
• Italian tortora

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 562
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tórtola
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3418
5. ^ a b 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. 8, 636
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. turtur
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 691
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. tórtola
10. ^ a b c d 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. tórtola
11. ^ a b 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. tórtola
12. ^ 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. tórtola
13. ^ 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. tórtola
14. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 514
15. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 537
16. ^ Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database)
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1037
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. tórtola
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tórtola
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tórtola