testera

Forms

testera f (plural testeras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish testa + -era.^[2][3] The noun “head” is from Latin testa (“tile, potsherd”), which in Late Latin also meant “skull”.^[4] Corominas dates that noun to about 1535 as a loan from Italian, beside the inherited Old Spanish tiesta “head”, and the derivative to about 1580; the CDH, however, has it from about 1430.^[5][6]

The same formation is Catalan testera and Italian testiera, both names of a horse's head armour or headstall, and French têtière, formed from tête (“head”).^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of horse armour: in Pedro de Corral's Crónica del rey don Rodrigo (c. 1430) the riders arm their horses with good mail and good testeras.^[6] El Victorial (1431–1449) describes horses armed with testera e picheras, pieces of very strong leather.^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

The armour for a horse's forehead became an ornament for it, a sense the Academy marked as old in the 19th century.^[10][11] From the front of a horse's head the word passed to the front or main face of anything, and in the 17th century to the forward-facing seat of a coach, the sense Autoridades gives first.^[10] The Academy's 1817 dictionary added the front and upper part of an animal's head.^[12]

In the Americas a testera was also the head of a table or the front of an altar, as in Yucatán in 1622 and Chile in 1661.^[13] In Bolivia and Chile it is now the platform from which a meeting is led or a speech given.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1430 – Pedro de Corral's chronicle names testeras for horses.^[6]
• 1431–1449 – El Victorial uses it of horse armour.^[6]
• c. 1580 – Corominas's date for the word.^[5]
• 1551 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[13]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as the front of a thing, the forward seat of a coach and a horse's head armour.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the front of an animal's head.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first derives it from testa.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The front or main face of something.^[2][15]
2. An ornament for the forehead of a horse or mule; formerly, the armour for it.^[2][1][10]
3. The front and upper part of an animal's head: El toro bajó la testera.^[2][16]
4. (metallurgy) Each of the walls of a smelting furnace.^[2]
5. (rare) In a horse-drawn carriage, the seat facing forward.^[2]
6. (Bolivia, Chile) The dais or raised place from which a meeting is led.^[14]

Related words

• testa
• testero
• testuz
• Catalan testera

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. testera
3. ^ 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. 1022
4. ^ 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. testa
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tiesto
6. ^ 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, p. s.v. testera
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. testera
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. testiera
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. testera
10. ^ 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, 262
11. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1046
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 840
13. ^ 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. testera
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. testera
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. testera
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. testera