tronada

Forms

tronada f (plural tronadas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish tronar + -da, from the verb meaning “to thunder”.^[2][3][4] Tronar continues Latin tonō (“to thunder”); its ⟨r⟩ comes from the old popular noun tronido (“thunder”), which got it by metathesis from tonitrus (“thunder”), and which the Libro de Alexandre still has in the older form tonidro.^[5][4] Menéndez Pidal heard tona for the thunderstorm in Luarca, in western Asturias, a possible trace of the Latin form without ⟨r⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE's first record is from 1618, in the first volume of T. Ramón's Puntos escripturales, in the sense of a storm with thunder and lightning, usually with wind and rain, hail or snow.^[2] The earliest hit of the CDH, from Gracián's Criticón (1653), already uses it figuratively: después de una gran tronada de suspiros “after a great thunderstorm of sighs”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1739) defined it as a storm of thunder, the definition the Academy kept through the 19th century.^[7][8][2] From 1838 it also names the noise of gunfire or fireworks.^[2] From 1852 it is also used for a series of thunderclaps, and in Chilean and Mexican mining for a controlled blast.^[2] Regional dictionaries record “thunder” and “downpour” in eastern Spain, “torrential rain” in León, a drug-induced high in Argentina and drunkenness or a fight in El Salvador and Bolivia.^[2][9] In Bolivian drug slang it is the snorting of cocaine.^[10]

In many places the word was a synonym of tormenta “storm”, and Corominas takes from it the English word tornado, recorded in 1556, which first meant a thunderstorm and later a hurricane.^[4][5] Etymonline calls it a sailors' word for a violent thunderstorm in the tropical Atlantic, probably a garbled borrowing, with the ⟨or⟩ owed to Spanish tornar “to turn”.^[11] Spanish has recently taken back tornado from English.^[5]

Timeline

• 1556 – the English word tornado, which Corominas derives from tronada, is first recorded.^[4][5]
• 1618 – first Spanish record, in T. Ramón's Puntos escripturales.^[2]
• 1653 – Gracián's Criticón uses it figuratively, a “thunderstorm of sighs”.^[6]
• 1739 – Autoridades enters it as a storm of thunder.^[7][2]
• 1792 – Jovellanos notes frequent tronadas and downpours in his travel diary.^[6]
• 1838 – first record of the sense “noise of gunfire or fireworks”.^[2]
• 1852 – first record of the sense “series of thunderclaps”.^[2]
• 1964 – Oroz's mining vocabulary records the blasting sense of Chile.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thunderstorm, a storm with loud thunder.^[3][2][1]
2. A series of thunderclaps; a series of loud explosions, as of fireworks.^[2]
3. (Chile, Mexico, mining) A controlled blast made to extract ore or advance a gallery.^[2]
4. (Bolivia, drug slang) The snorting of powdered cocaine.^[10]

Related words

• tronar
• trueno
• tornado

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. tronada
3. ^ a b 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. tronada
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tronar
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 659
6. ^ 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. tronada
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 364
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1054
9. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. tronada
10. ^ 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. tronada
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com