tomate

Forms

tomate m (plural tomates)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Classical Nahuatl tomatl.^[2][3][4][1] In Nahuatl the word named the fruit that stays green when ripe, the tomatillo, while the red tomato was xitomatl, the source of Mexican jitomate.^[1][5][6] Etymonline reports that the Nahuatl word is said to mean “the swelling fruit”, from tomana (“to swell”).^[7]

Spanish passed the word on to French tomate and English tomato, and to Catalan tomàquet.^[5][7][1] The Diccionario de Autoridades derived it from poma “apple”, because the fruit resembles apples.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to 1532, in Bernardino de Sahagún.^[2][3] Boyd-Bowman's earliest record is from Mexico in 1540, fruta y ají y tomates “fruit and chili and tomatoes”, and the Relación de Michoacán (c. 1541) speaks of la fruta llamada tomates “the fruit called tomatoes”.^[9][10] As late as 1571 Alonso de Molina still treated it as an Indian word in his Nahuatl vocabulary: tomatl, “a fruit used as verjuice in stews or sauces”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cervantes de Salazar (1560) compares tomatoes with unripe grapes, Bernal Díaz del Castillo names them with salt and chili as the makings of a stew, and José de Acosta (1590) calls them fresh and wholesome.^[10] By 1726–1739 the Diccionario de Autoridades describes the plant and its fruit, green at first and red in the sun, much used for sauces.^[8] In Chile tan colorado como un tomate “as red as a tomato” was a common comparison, and the plant itself is tomate there rather than tomatera.^[11]

The colloquial senses of today include a hole in a sock or stocking, a hidden muddle and a quarrel, and a card game like julepe.^[4] In Mexico tomate is the green tomatillo, in Chile a bun of hair, in El Salvador the nose, in Uruguay the head and in Guatemala a city bus.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1532 – first record, in Bernardino de Sahagún.^[2][3]
• 1540 – a record from Mexico: fruta y ají y tomates.^[9]
• c. 1541 – the Relación de Michoacán names la fruta llamada tomates.^[10]
• 1571 – Molina's vocabulary still gives only the Nahuatl tomatl.^[2]
• 1590 – José de Acosta describes tomatoes as fresh and wholesome.^[10]
• c. 1600 – English has tomate, later reshaped as tomato (1753).^[7]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes the plant and derives the name from poma.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tomato, the smooth, shiny red berry of the tomato plant, full of flat yellowish seeds.^[4][1]
2. The tomato plant (tomatera).^[4][1]
3. A card game like julepe.^[4]
4. (colloquial) A hole in a knitted garment such as a sock or glove: Llevaba un tomate en el talón.^[4][1]
5. (colloquial) A hidden muddle or tangle.^[4]
6. (colloquial) A quarrel, a fight.^[4][1]
7. (Mexico) The tomatillo (tomate verde).^[4][1]
8. (Chile, colloquial) A bun of hair.^[12][1]

Word family

• tomatada
• tomatal
• tomatero
• tomatera
• tomatillo
• tomaticán
• entomatada
• Tomatina
• tomatazo

Related words

• jitomate
• Classical Nahuatl tomatl
• English tomato

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 543
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tomate
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. tomate
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. tomate
6. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 618
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 295
9. ^ 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. tomate
10. ^ 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. tomate
11. ^ Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. s.v. tomate
12. ^ 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. tomate