tesoro

Forms

tesoro m (plural tesoros)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote thesoro, and had the forms tresoro and trasoro.^[2][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades still entered the word under the spelling thesoro.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin thēsaurus (“treasure; storehouse”), from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”).^[5][6][7][1] Meyer-Lübke considered it a semi-learned word;^[3] Corominas allows this, but finds the development popular in every Romance language, and notes that Old Spanish always wrote it with the voiced ⟨-s-⟩.^[5][3]

It is Portuguese tesouro, Galician tesouro, Catalan tresor, Old French tresor and Italian tesoro.^[3][1] The ⟨r⟩ of the first syllable in Catalan, French and Old Spanish tresoro anticipates the later ⟨r⟩ of the word, according to Niedermann.^[3] Old High German borrowed it as treso.^[3]

The Greek word has no etymology;^[8] Beekes takes it for a technical loanword, surely from Pre-Greek.^[8] Wiktionary mentions an alternative derivation from Ancient Greek τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first CDH hit is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): el oro e la plata y el arambre e el fiero foy alçado poral tesoro de la casa del Criador, “the gold and the silver, the copper and the iron were set aside for the treasury of the house of the Creator”.^[9] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) translates its Latin heading De eo qui thesaurum veterem invenerit as Del que tesoro uieio fallare, “of him who finds an old treasure”.^[9] Corominas has Berceo, in whom the word is frequent, as the first record.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the plural for the chests and strongrooms in which precious stones were kept.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 defined a treasure as a hidden store of money, gold, pearls or jewels so old that nobody remembers its owner, which therefore belongs to the finder; he also gave the word for the dignitary of a church who keeps its treasure.^[11][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the royal or private treasury and any store of wealth.^[13] By 1884 the Academy also had the figurative sense, a person or thing of great value.^[14]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1538 in Lima, often of treasure found in graves; a Guatemalan text of 1635 says such graves were called guacas.^[15] The DLE also uses tesoro for the title some authors gave to dictionaries, catalogues and anthologies.^[7] In Asturian it means a money box.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar uses the word for the treasury of the temple.^[9]
• c. 1215–1220 – the Vida de santa María Egipciaca has it.^[2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita renders Latin thesaurum as tesoro.^[9]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses it often.^[5][6]
• 1223 – tesorero “treasurer” is first recorded, according to the Breve diccionario; the DCECH gives 1233.^[6][5]
• 1538 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the finder's right to an ownerless treasure.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary has the figurative sense of a valued person or thing.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. treasure: a quantity of money, valuables or precious objects gathered and kept: Los piratas enterraron el tesoro en la isla.^[7][1]
2. The public treasury, the exchequer.^[7][1][16]
3. A person or thing of great value or worth: Mi vecina es un tesoro.^[7][16]
4. A name given by their authors to some dictionaries, catalogues or anthologies; a thesaurus.^[7][1]
5. (law) A hidden hoard of coins or precious things whose owner is not remembered.^[7]

Word family

• tesorero
• tesorería
• atesorar
• cazatesoros

Related words

• tesauro
• tesaurizar
• Latin thēsaurus
• Portuguese tesouro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, p. s.v. tesoro
3. ^ a b c d e f Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 262
5. ^ 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, 477
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tesoro
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. tesoro
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ 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. tesoro
10. ^ 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. tesoro
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1326
12. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1327
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 269
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1021
15. ^ 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. tesoro
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tesoro