tequila

Forms

tequila m or (proscribed, uncommon) f (plural tequilas)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Spanish Tequila, the name of a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco, where the drink was first made.^[2][3][1] The place name comes from Classical Nahuatl Tequillan, also written Tecuila, “place of tribute”.^[1][4] Gómez de Silva analyses it as tequitl (“tribute; work”) with -llan (“place of”), and notes that in 15th-century Mexico tribute was often paid in labour.^[4] Peñafiel also derives it from the word for tribute, but reads the ending as a suffix of abundance.^[5] Henríquez Ureña lists Tequilan > Tequila among the Nahuatl place names that lost their final /n/ in Spanish, like ⟨Tollan⟩ > ⟨Tula⟩.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE dates the drink's name to 1863, in M. Payno's Memoria sobre el maguey mexicano y sus diversos productos, for the spirit made by fermenting and distilling the juice of the fleshy leaves of the tequila agave.^[2] The place name itself is much older: a record of 1547 from Mexico names Tequila among the places of the valley, and a 1781 text praises the town for the mezcal grown there.^[7][8] English had vino de Tequila from 1841 and tequila from 1849.^[9]

Semantic evolution

By metonymy the word came to mean a bottle, glass or drink of tequila, first recorded in 1885 in “Chema y Pancho”, published in El Valedor of Mexico City.^[2] Federico Gamboa's Suprema ley of 1896 already uses the plural tequilas for drinks.^[7]

The dictionaries took the word in as an americanism: Alemany in 1917 defined it as a spirit made from the maguey, Malaret in 1946 as a Mexican drink like gin, of masculine and feminine gender.^[10][11] The Academy also compared it with gin in 2001, and now calls it a Mexican spirit distilled from a species of maguey.^[12][3] Santamaría in 1942 also gave the name to the plant, Agave tequilana, and Bolivian Spanish uses it for an aperitif or cocktail.^[2] Its use has spread to the whole Spanish-speaking world.^[2]

Spanish passed the word to tequila, текила (tekila) and tekila.^[1][9]

Timeline

• 1547 – a record from Mexico names the place Tequila.^[7]
• 1781 – a Mexican text praises the town of Tequila for its mezcal.^[8]
• 1841 – English has vino de Tequila, and tequila from 1849.^[9]
• 1863 – first record of the drink's name, in M. Payno's study of the maguey.^[2]
• 1885 – first record for a glass or bottle of tequila.^[2]
• 1896 – Gamboa's Suprema ley uses the plural tequilas.^[7]
• 1917 – Alemany's dictionary records it as an americanism.^[10]
• 1942 – Santamaría gives the name to the plant Agave tequilana.^[2]
• 1964 – a Bolivian dictionary records the sense “aperitif, cocktail”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. tequila: a Mexican spirit distilled from the fermented juice of a species of maguey or agave: Pidió un tequila con sal y limón.^[3][2][1]
2. A glass, bottle or drink of tequila.^[2]
3. (Mexico) The blue agave, Agave tequilana, from which the drink is made.^[2][4]
4. (Bolivia) An aperitif or cocktail (aperitivo, cóctel).^[2]

Related words

• English tequila

Usage notes

Tequila is mainly masculine (el tequila); the feminine is much rarer, and the Academy's Diccionario panhispánico de dudas advises against it.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. tequila
3. ^ 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. tequila
4. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 217
5. ^ Peñafiel, Antonio (1897), Nomenclatura geográfica de México: etimologías de los nombres de lugar, México: Oficina Tipográfica de la Secretaría de Fomento, p. 509
6. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 144
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tequila
8. ^ 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. tequila
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1573
11. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 771
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. tequila