tronco

Forms

tronco m (plural troncos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish tronco, inherited from Latin truncus (“trunk; lopped, maimed”).^[2][1][3][4] The Latin word was first an adjective meaning “lopped, without branches” and “maimed, without limbs”, and as a noun it named both the trunk of a tree and the human trunk.^[3][4] The same word is Portuguese tronco, Catalan tronc, French tronc and Italian tronco.^[5][1][6] The noun is common to all the Western Romance languages.^[3]

De Vaan takes the adjective, “maimed, robbed of its branches or head”, as the oldest form, although the noun is attested earlier.^[7] He sees no compelling reason to connect it with Gothic and Lithuanian verbs meaning “to push, thrust”, such as Lithuanian trinkti, since the word means “missing some of its parts”, not “compressed”.^[7] Wiktionary calls the origin unknown and proposes Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to cut”) as possible.^[1]

The learned form of the same Latin word is trunco, first recorded at the end of the 17th century, and the verb truncar (about 1435) was taken from truncō.^[3][4] troncho “stalk” continues the diminutive trunculus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1101 in Oelschläger's list, followed by Berceo; these early texts already have the noun for the trunk of a tree.^[3] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (first half of the 13th century) has it too.^[8] Alfonso X's General estoria (1280) uses it for tree trunks, which the unicorn's horn can pierce (passa los troncos de los aruoles), and for a headless body: Judith wrapped Holofernes' body como tronco sin la cabeça.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Corominas found no record of the sense “human trunk” before Lope de Vega and thought it might be later than the tree sense, but Alfonso X already used it in 1280.^[3][9] Covarrubias (1611) adds the genealogical sense: in family trees the founder of a house is its tronco.^[10] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 records the pair of mules or horses harnessed to the front of a coach, an insensitive or useless person, and the phrase estar hecho un tronco “to be senseless, or fast asleep”.^[11] The adjective tronco “truncated” was always rare and is marked obsolete.^[3][2]

The geometric sense (tronco de pirámide, “frustum”) and the anatomical one, the main duct from which smaller vessels branch (tronco arterial), are not in the Academy's dictionary of 1899 but are in that of 2001.^[12][13] In Spain the word has become a colloquial form of address among friends, “mate, pal”.^[2][14][1] In Cuba it named the main line of a railway.^[15][16] In Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay a tronco is a clumsy, unskilled person, and in Puerto Rico, Colombia and Paraguay the stump of a felled tree.^[17] In the Spanish of the United States tronco also means the trunk of a car, after English trunk.^[18]

Timeline

• 1101 – first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• 1200–1250 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[8]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for a tree trunk and for a headless body.^[9]
• c. 1435 – first record of the learned verb truncar.^[3][4]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, troncos de leña in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1596 – the rare adjective tronco “truncated”.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the genealogical sense.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the team of mules or horses and estar hecho un tronco.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin truncus.^[20]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (obsolete) truncated, cut short.^[2]

Noun

1. (Spain, colloquial) A friend or companion, used mostly as a form of address: ¿Qué haces aquí, tronco?^[2][14][1]
2. (geometry) A truncated solid, a frustum: tronco de cono.^[2][1]
3. The trunk of a tree or shrub; also a log.^[2][1]
4. The torso of a person or animal, without head and limbs.^[2][1]
5. A team of two or more mules or horses drawing a carriage.^[2][1]
6. A main duct or channel from which smaller ones branch: tronco arterial.^[2]
7. The common ancestor of several lines or families; stock.^[2]
8. An insensitive, useless or contemptible person.^[2]
9. (Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay) A clumsy, unskilled person.^[17]

Word family

• tronca
• troncal
• troncón
• tronquista
• destroncar
• entroncar
• entronque
• picatroncos
• trepatroncos

Related words

• trunco
• truncar
• troncho
• tronchar
• Latin truncus
• Portuguese tronco
• English trunk

Usage notes

Dormir como un tronco and estar hecho un tronco mean “to sleep like a log”.^[14][2] In Spain the colloquial form of address has a feminine tronca.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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; 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. tronco
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 661
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tronco
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. truncus
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tronco
9. ^ 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. tronco
10. ^ 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. 1352
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 866
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 988
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. tronco
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tronco
15. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 359
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1620
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. tronco
18. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 90
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. tronco
20. ^ 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