torneo

Forms

torneo m (plural torneos)^[1]

Etymology

The Academy derives it from Spanish tornear (“to turn; to fight in a tournament”).^[2][3] Wiktionary has it formed instead from Spanish torno + -eo, and Moliner also derives it from the noun.^[1][4] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of that noun, almost all of which share the idea of turning round.^[5][6]

Gómez de Silva traces tornear to Old French torneier (“to fight on horseback; to turn round”), because the riders in a tournament wheeled round before each charge, and further to Vulgar Latin *tornidiare (“to turn round”).^[7] Cejador, glossing the word in Cervantes, derived it from French tournoi.^[8] Autoridades took it from Latin tornare, and the Academy's dictionaries from 1884 on explain it as “turning round” in the fight.^[9][3]

The noun continues tornus (“lathe”), which is from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “lathe, turner's tool”), a derivative of τείρω (teírō, “to bore through”).^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo, in the Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, in an 18th-century copy), uses torneo for a fight or combat: the saint tells Abundancio of Cantabria that he will be the first to go out to the battle.^[10][11] The first record without a later copy is in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247, where every knight must defend his lord and the man who knighted him en torneo, “in combat”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant both a battle or skirmish and the knightly game: Alfonso X's prose has torneo for a festive combat between armed knights and for a real battle fought through the night.^[12][13] Berceo also used it figuratively for an affair or story told at length.^[11]

Covarrubias distinguished the tournament on foot from the one on horseback, both meant to train the troops, and noted that the Church had forbidden tournaments in the open field.^[14] Autoridades defined it as a mounted fight between bands of knights, as the public festival imitating such a battle (unlike the justa, a single combat), and as a dance with rods in place of lances.^[9] The sense “any competition, especially a series of sporting matches” is now the main one.^[2][15] In the underworld slang of 1609 torneo meant judicial torture.^[16] In Puerto Rico it is a gathering of the best fighting cocks of a village and its neighbours.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date of first record, in Berceo.^[5][6]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón, the first record surviving in a contemporary copy.^[10]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas names tournaments among knightly exercises.^[12]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for a battle.^[12]
• 1526 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[19]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's glossary of the cant of thieves records it as “torture”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes tournaments on foot and on horseback.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives the senses “mounted fight”, “public festival” and “dance”.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from tornear.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A tournament: an armed contest between two bands of knights for a prize.^[2][1]
2. (history) A dance imitating a tournament, with rods in place of lances.^[2][9]
3. Any competition or contest.^[2][1]
4. A series of sporting matches or games in which players or teams knock one another out: Ganaron el torneo de ajedrez del colegio.^[2][15]
5. (Puerto Rico) A meeting of the best fighting cocks of a village and the villages around it.^[17]

Related words

• tornear
• torno
• justa
• French tournoi

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. torneo
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1035
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. torneo
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. torno
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 558
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. torneo
8. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1100
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. torneo
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. torneo
11. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 754
12. ^ a b c 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. torneo
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 410
14. ^ 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. 1337
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. torneo
16. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 202
17. ^ 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. torneo
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. torneo
19. ^ 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. torneo