trajinar

Forms

trajinar (first-person singular present trajino, first-person singular preterite trajiné, past participle trajinado)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Catalan traginar (“to carry, transport”), which is current in Catalan by 1176, to judge from the noun tragí (“carrying”) in a document of that year.^[2][3][1][4] The Catalan verb continues Vulgar Latin *tragināre, formed on *tragere, an altered form of Latin trahō (“to pull, drag”).^[3][5][6] The Vulgar Latin verb survives from Catalan to Romanian, in French traîner, Italian trascinare and Romanian tărăgăna “to drag out”.^[2][7][1]

Menéndez Pidal already saw that the ⟨j⟩ shows the word to be a newcomer in Castilian, though Corominas rejects his etymon *trans-ag-inare.^[2] Baist, followed by the REW, thought of a borrowing of the Italian verb, which Corominas considers less likely because it means “to drag”, not “to transport, trade” like the Spanish and Catalan words;^[7] Oudin and Covarrubias also spell it with ⟨g⟩, not ⟨x⟩.^[2][7] The Academy gave the Italian etymology in 1884 and 1899, and now derives the word from the Vulgar Latin verb without naming the Catalan step.^[8][9][6] Prat Sabater notes that Corominas takes the Catalan origin for granted rather than arguing it.^[10]

The native Old Spanish outcome of the same Latin verb is trainar, recorded as a participle in 1237; the native traína “dragnet” is of the same origin.^{[11][7][12][2]}

The origin of the Latin verb is unclear; a link with Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to drag”) is debated.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is an inventory of 1547 listing unas tablas de traxinar, boards used for carrying.^[13] In a Peruvian ordinance of 1571 the word means carrying goods with pack animals: trajinar con carneros y con mulas y caballos.^[13] Corominas's first record is Oudin's dictionary of 1607, which translates it “to traffic, transport and cart goods from one place to another” and also “to run about, go here and there”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to the carrying trade: Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as carrying loads from one place to another, as muleteers do, who were therefore called tragineros.^[14] In colonial Spanish America it was used of the transport of goods and silver, overland in the Río de la Plata (1581) and by sea from Chile (1587).^[15]

The Diccionario de Autoridades adds a figurative sense, “to go from one place to another”, which the Academy later defined as going to and fro on any business; this is the modern “to bustle about”.^[16][17][6] Salvá recorded American senses “to cajole” and “to lose patience”.^[18]

Among the colloquial senses, Garzón recorded the sexual sense in Argentina in 1910, and Moliner and Vox give it as vulgar in Spain.^[19][20][21] In Chile it means to rummage or search through something and to cheat, in Panama to annoy, and in Cuba to tease.^[22][23][1]

Timeline

• 1176 – Catalan tragí “carrying” in a document.^[2]
• 1237 – the native Old Spanish trainados.^[11]
• 1547 – first hit in the CDH, spelt traxinar.^[13]
• 1571 – a Peruvian ordinance uses it for carrying goods with pack animals.^[13]
• 1581 – first record in the Boyd-Bowman corpus, in the Río de la Plata.^[15]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines traginar as carrying loads.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the figurative sense.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Italian trascinare.^[8]
• 1910 – Garzón records the sexual sense in Argentina.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To transport or carry goods from one place to another: Trajinaban sacos de harina entre los dos pueblos.^[6][1]
2. (intransitive) To bustle about, go from place to place busy with something: Se pasó la mañana trajinando por la casa.^[6][20]
3. (vulgar, Spain) To have sex with someone.^[20][21]
4. (Chile) To rummage through something to find what is hidden or lost.^[23][22][1]
5. (Chile, rare) To cheat or swindle someone.^[23]
6. (Cuba) To tease someone without meaning offence.^[23]
7. (Argentina, Uruguay, colloquial) To do a piece of work that costs more effort than usual.^[21]

Word family

• trajín
• trajinante
• trajinero

Related words

• traer
• traína
• Catalan traginar
• French traîner

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 575
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. traer
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e 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. trajinar
7. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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. 1040
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 974
10. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 193
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6794
13. ^ 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
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. 1, 1343
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. trajinar
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 317
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 758
18. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1065
19. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 480
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. trajinar
21. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. trajinar
22. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 789
23. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. trajinar