tulipán

Forms

tulipán m (plural tulipanes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French tulipan, the old French form of the flower's name, from Turkish tülbent (“turban”), which comes from Persian دلبند (dolband, “turban”).^[2][3][1] The Turkish word was given to the flower because of its likeness to a turban; according to Busbecq the Turks already called it so about 1560.^[3][4][5] Corominas derives it from the vulgar Turkish variant tulipant, recorded beside the usual form and tulpant.^[3][6]

The same Turkish word, through Italian, is Spanish turbante, and Wiktionary calls the two doublets.^[3][1] The French forms ran tulipa (1593), then the form above (1600) and tulipe (1611); the last was taken into Spanish as tulipa.^[4][3][6] Wiktionary instead takes the Spanish word from New Latin tulipa.^[1] Etymonline notes that Italian tulipano and the Spanish word keep the full Turkish form, while the Germanic languages dropped the ⟨-an⟩, mistaking it for a suffix.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in Lope de Vega's Jerusalén conquistada (1609), describing a coat of arms sembrado de imitados tulipanes “strewn with imitated tulips”.^[7] Corominas had cited an Aragonese letter of 1648 and Autoridades.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the tulip was a prized garden flower, named by Calderón (1649) and by Soto de Rojas (1652), who notes that in Spain it has colours but no scent.^[7] Autoridades (1739) describes it as a flower shaped like a little bonnet, brought from Turkey with a name meaning “bonnet” there.^[8] In Lima tulips were grown and sold in the 1770s and 1790s.^[9]

In the Americas the name passed to other showy plants: a hibiscus in Mexico, an amaryllid in Colombia, an iris in the Dominican Republic.^[10][11][12] In Cuba and the Antilles it was a joking name for the silver peso or dollar.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – Busbecq reports that the Turks call the flower by the word for “turban”.^[3][4]
• 1600 – French tulipan is recorded.^[4][3]
• 1609 – Lope de Vega uses tulipanes in the Jerusalén conquistada.^[7]
• 1648 – an Aragonese letter, Corominas's first record.^[3][6]
• 1739 – Autoridades records the word.^[8]
• 1775 – first record in the Americas, in Lima.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Turkish.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tulip: a bulbous plant of the lily family with a single large, cup-shaped, scentless flower of bright colours.^[2][1]
2. The flower of this plant.^[2]
3. (Mexico) A hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis).^[10]
4. (Antilles, dated, humorous) A silver peso.^[13]

Related words

• tulipa
• turbante
• French tulipe
• English tulip

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. tulipán
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 698
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. turbante
7. ^ 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. tulipán
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6
9. ^ 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. tulipán
10. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 1093
11. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tulipán
12. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. tulipán
13. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 798
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 991