tirano

Forms

tirano (feminine tirana, masculine plural tiranos, feminine plural tiranas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin tyrannus (“monarch; tyrant”), first recorded in the third quarter of the 13th century.^[2][3][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “absolute ruler”), which in Greek named a ruler whose power was not limited by law.^[3][4] Corominas describes the Greek word as properly “petty king, local sovereign”.^[2] Beekes takes it as a Pre-Greek word and finds none of the other proposals plausible;^[5][1] Wiktionary mentions a possible loan from Lydian or another language of Asia Minor.^[5][1]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese tirano, Italian tiranno, French tyran and Romanian tiran; Old French tirant was later replaced in French by a learned form.^[1][6] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel lists tiranos in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (1256–1265) as its first record in a Castilian text.^[8] In the General estoria of about 1280 Alfonso's scholars already explained the double sense: the word once meant a good prince, but the schools now used it for a cruel and bad one (agora usan en las escuelas de dezir lo por princep cruel).^[9]

Semantic evolution

Terreros noted that among the ancients the word was not odious and meant only “king, sovereign”, and that it was later used of anyone who abuses power or oppresses freedom.^[10] Nebrija in 1513 gave Latin tyrannus and dominus as its equivalents.^[11] The Academy's dictionaries of 1817 and 1843 defined it as a lord who governs without justice, at his own will, and also as a merchant who sells his goods at excessive prices, and as a passion that rules the mind.^[12][13] The 1869 edition added the extended sense of anyone who abuses his power or strength over those under him.^[14] In the 1899 edition the first sense became one who seizes the government of a state against the law.^[15]

In the Americas the word was used from 1535 on of rebels against the Crown, such as those who rose with Hernando de Contreras in Panama in 1550.^[16] Domínguez in 1846 also recorded it as the name of birds, and Alemany in 1917 as a genus of American flycatchers.^[17][18] The feminine tirana names a Spanish popular song, now out of use, and in Ávila, Salamanca and Zamora a cut-cloth trim on a skirt.^[3]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – tiranos in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas.^[8][2]
• c. 1280 – the General estoria notes the shift from “good prince” to “cruel prince”.^[9]
• c. 1440 – the derivative tiranía is first recorded.^[2]
• 1513 – Nebrija's dictionary.^[11]
• 1535 – first record in the Americas, at Nombre de Dios.^[16]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense of a merchant who overcharges.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin tyrannus and Greek.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: who takes the government of a state against the law, especially one who rules without justice and by his own will; also as a noun, a tyrant.^[3][1]
2. Of a person: who abuses his power, strength or superiority, or imposes it to an extreme degree; also as a noun: Su jefe era un tirano con los aprendices.^[3][20]
3. Of a passion or feeling: that dominates the mind and drags the will along: unos celos tiranos.^[3][20]

Noun

1. (zoology) A tyrant flycatcher, an American bird of the family of the tiránidos.^[18][21]

Word family

• tirana
• tiranía
• tiránico
• tiranizar
• tiranuelo
• tiranicida
• tiranicidio

Related words

• Latin tyrannus
• Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos)
• Portuguese tirano
• Italian tiranno

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tirano
3. ^ 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. tirano
4. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tirano
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
9. ^ a b 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. tirano
10. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 642
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 422
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 845
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 702
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 749
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 963
16. ^ 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. tirano
17. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1643
18. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1587
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1028
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tirano
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tirano