tudesco

Forms

tudesco (feminine tudesca, masculine plural tudescos, feminine plural tudescas)^[1]

Etymology

According to the DLE it is borrowed from Medieval Latin Teutiscus, which the DLE takes from *Thiudiska.^[2][3] Wiktionary gives Medieval or Late Latin theodiscus, from *þiudiskaz, perhaps through an Old Italian form or influenced by one.^[1] The Germanic adjective is formed from *þeudō (“people”) with the suffix *-iskaz.^[1]

The Romance words are Italian tedesco, French tudesque and Portuguese tudesco.^[1] The French word, first spelt ⟨thodesche⟩ in the early 14th century and ⟨tudesque⟩ in 1512, was taken from Old Italian, and corresponds to German deutsch and English Dutch.^[4] Cunha derives the Portuguese word from the French one.^[5] The Academy's 1884 dictionary derived the Spanish word directly from teutsch.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old Spanish Textual Archive records the word first in a text of 1495.^[7] In the Americas it appears in 1532 in Mexico, where an account compares a strange speech to that of Germans: „la habla de ellos es a manera de tudescos” “their speech is like that of Germans”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The chroniclers of the Indies used tudesco as the type of an unintelligible tongue, beside the Basque: a Biscayan in his Basque would understand a German no better than one Indian people understood another (1539, 1548).^[8] Covarrubias (1611) records only a kind of cloak, so called because its use was brought from Germany, and Autoridades repeated him.^[9][10] Terreros glossed it as “German” and gave valiente como un tudesco “brave as a German”.^[11] From 1817 the Academy defined it as a native of a country of Germany in Lower Saxony, also used for German in general.^[12] The 1884 edition added comer, beber, engordar como un tudesco “to eat, drink, grow fat a great deal”.^[6] Vox also records a historical sense: a supporter of the Archduke Charles in the War of the Spanish Succession.^[13] Today it is an informal or rare word for “German”.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 1495 – first record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[7]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[8]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a kind of cloak.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as a native of Lower Saxony, generally used for “German”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the phrase comer como un tudesco.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Native of a certain region of Germany, in Lower Saxony; also as a noun.^[2]
2. Of or relating to that region or its people.^[2]
3. (informal) German; also as a noun, a German.^[2][1][3]

Noun

1. (rare) A German-style cloak or cape.^[2][9]

Related words

• alemán
• Italian tedesco
• French tudesque
• German deutsch

Usage notes

Comer (or beber, engordar) como un tudesco is a colloquial and now uncommon phrase for eating, drinking or growing fat a great deal.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. tudesco
3. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tudesco
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. tudesque
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3407
6. ^ 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. 1057
7. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. tudesco
8. ^ a b c 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. tudesco
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1355
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 372
11. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 723
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 867
13. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tudesco