taladro

Forms

taladro m (plural taladros)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin tarātrum (“auger, borer”).^[2][3][4][1] As a Latin word it is in Isidore of Seville, and the form taradrus appears in the Capitulare de villis, a Frankish text of the early 9th century.^[2]

Corominas holds that the Latin word is of Celtic origin, comparing Old Irish tarathar and Welsh taradr;^[2][3][1] Wiktionary gives as one possibility a Proto-Celtic *taratrom.^[2][3][1] The DLE derives it instead from Ancient Greek τέρετρον (téretron, “borer, gimlet”), and Wiktionary gives this as the other possibility.^[4][1] The Greek and the Old Irish word are cognates, both instrument nouns from *terh₁- (“to bore”), and Latin terebra (“borer”) belongs to the same root.^[5][3]

The same Late Latin word gave Portuguese trado, Galician trade, Old Occitan taraire and Basque daratulu; Catalan taladre is taken from Spanish.^[6][7][2][8] Corominas thinks the stress of Asturian táladru could be old and go back to Celtic, but accepts the idea only with reserve, since a synonym such as the Latin word for “borer” may have influenced it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Libro del astrolabio redondo of Rabí Zag (1277), in Alfonso X's astronomical books: the reader is told to make un taladro que sea tan gordo como el forado de los polos “a drill as thick as the hole of the poles”.^[9][10][11] Corominas's first record was later, the Toledo glossary of about 1400, where it translates Latin terebrum.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Saint Vicente Ferrer compares God's love for people to the carpenter's love for his saw, adze and drill (1411–1412).^[10] Alfonso de Palencia, Nebrija and Covarrubias record the tool;^[9][12][13] Covarrubias, like the Diccionario de Autoridades, derives it from Latin terebrum.^[9][12][13]

The sense “hole made with a drill” is recorded from 1593, and hacer taladro was used for taladrar.^[9][13] The DHLE then dates a series of new senses: a passage in a mine (c. 1640), a deep cleft in the ground (1734), the ovipositor of insects (1753–1755), various wood-boring insects and larvae (from 1831), a blast hole in rock (c. 1858), the electric drill (from 1881) and the shipworm (1901).^[9] In Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay taladro names a longhorn beetle, and in the Canary Islands a caterpillar that bores into plants or wood.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1277 – first record, in the Libro del astrolabio redondo.^[9][10]
• c. 1400 – the Toledo glossary translates Latin terebrum with it.^[2][3]
• 1490 – the verb taladrar.^[3]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: 16 taladros pequeños.^[16]
• 1593 – the sense “hole made with a drill”.^[9]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin terebrum.^[12]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the tool and the hole.^[13]
• 1881 – the sense “power drill”.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Latin terebrum; from 1899 it gives taratrum.^[17][18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drill, auger: a pointed or cutting tool for boring holes in wood or other material; today especially a power drill (taladradora).^[4][9][19]
2. A hole made with a drill: Hizo dos taladros en la pared para colgar el cuadro.^[4][19]
3. (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay) A wood-boring longhorn beetle.^[14]
4. (Canary Islands) A caterpillar that bores into plant tissue or wood.^[15]

Word family

• taladrar
• taladradora
• taladrador

Related words

• terebrante

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 384
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. taladro
4. ^ a b c d 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. taladro
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. τέρετρον
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. taratrum
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8570
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 765
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. taladro
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. taladro
11. ^ 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. taladro
12. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1316
13. ^ 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, 214
14. ^ 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. taladro
15. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. taladro
16. ^ 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. taladro
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. 1005
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 942
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. taladro