turquesa

Forms

turquesa f (plural turquesas)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Old Spanish turqués (“Turkish”) in its feminine form, used for “Turkish stone”, with piedra understood.^[2][1] The adjective comes from turco (“Turk”) with the suffix -és.^[1] The stone was named after the Turks for its Asian origin.^[3][4][5][6] Gómez de Silva instead sees in it a rendering of Old French turqueise (now French turquoise), the feminine of turqueis (“Turkish”), and notes that the mineral was first found in Turkestan.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record without a later copy is the Poridat de las poridades (c. 1250): La piedra turquesa preçianla mucho todavía los reyes e los grandes omnes “kings and great men always prize the turquoise stone highly”.^[8] Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) says the stone is called feyruzech in Arabic and turquesa in Latin.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also wrote torquesa, as in Juan Manuel's list of precious stones (1326).^[10][8] Nebrija rendered it with Latin thalassites and lapis cyaneus.^[11] Autoridades (1739) described a clear stone of deep blue that turns green with age.^[12] Terreros (1793) also gave the name to a white anemone.^[13] From 1817 the Academy defined the word as fossil bone or tooth tinged blue by copper, now the turquesa occidental.^[14][2] The 1869 edition first described the mineral as a phosphate with copper oxide.^[15] Today the word also names the greenish-blue colour and is used as an adjective of that colour.^[2][6] In the Dominican Republic it is also a kind of pigeon.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – first record, in the Poridat de las poridades.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario gives the Arabic name of the stone.^[9]
• 1326 – Juan Manuel writes torquesas among other precious stones.^[8]
• 1478 – Corominas's first record, in an Aragonese inventory.^[3][4]
• 1495 – Nebrija records the derivative turquesado for the colour.^[3][4]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, strings of turquoises in Mexico.^[17]
• 1739 – Autoridades describes the stone.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as fossil bone tinged by copper.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy first describes the mineral.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. turquoise, a greenish-blue mineral, a phosphate of aluminium with some copper and iron, used in jewellery: Llevaba un anillo de plata con una turquesa.^[2][5][1]
2. (masculine) Turquoise, the greenish-blue colour of this stone.^[2][1]
3. turquesa occidental: a fossil bone or tooth tinged blue by copper oxide, used in jewellery.^[2]
4. (Dominican Republic) A kind of pigeon (Columba bollii).^[16]

Adjective

1. Turquoise, of a greenish-blue colour: unos ojos turquesa.^[2][6][1]

Word family

• turquesado
• aturquesado

Related words

• turco
• turquí
• French turquoise

Usage notes

As an adjective of colour it is often left unchanged in the plural.^[6] A turquesa of separate origin (the DLE's turquesa1, recorded from 1596) is a pincer-shaped mould for casting crossbow pellets or lead bullets, and any mould;^[18] Cervantes used it figuratively in the Persiles (formado en una misma turquesa).^{[19][20][2][12]} Its origin is uncertain: Corominas and the DLE suggest Old French turcais “quiver”, the word that gave carcaj, by comparing the mould for crossbow pellets with the quiver for arrows, and Corominas rejects Covarrubias's derivation from Latin torqueō (“to twist”).^{[19][20][2][18]} The CDH's earliest hit, in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy), lists turquesas among the arms of women carrying crossbows, not the stone.^[8]

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 h i 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. turquesa
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 700
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. turquesa II
5. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. turquesa
6. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. turquesa
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 704
8. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. turquesa
9. ^ a b 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. turquesa
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. turquesa
11. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 426
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 379
13. ^ 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, 728
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 869
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 772
16. ^ a b 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. turquesa
17. ^ 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. turquesa
18. ^ 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. 1358
19. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 702
20. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. turquesa I