vaca

Forms

vaca f (plural vacas)^[1] Old Spanish texts write the word uaca, baca, bacca, vaqua and vaca.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vacca (“cow”), recorded from 931 in charters with ⟨b⟩ or ⟨v⟩, in literature from the Cantar de mio Cid.^[3][4][5][1] The word is common to the Romance languages: Portuguese vaca, Catalan vaca, Occitan vaca, French vache, Italian vacca, Sardinian bacca and Romanian vacă.^[6][3][1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[7][1] It has been linked with Sanskrit वशा (vaśā, “cow”), but de Vaan rejects this, since Latin would need a vowel that became /a/ only in open syllables, and an older Proto-Italic form with a doubled consonant would have to be assumed.^[7] He prefers an older suggestion that it was a form with a long vowel related to वाशति (vā́śati, “roars”) and vāgiō (“to wail”), from an onomatopoeic root Proto-Indo-European *ueh₂-: “the bellowing one”.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is a charter of 931 with the spelling baca.^[3][4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) raiders bring back muchos gañados de ovejas e de vacas “many flocks of sheep and cows”.^[8] A testament of the 13th century leaves una uaca nomnada Algonera “a cow called Algonera”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The meat sense is old: the Diccionario de Autoridades called vaca the meat weighed out at the butcher's, even when it was ox, and Monlau quoted Covarrubias's remark that parts of the Crown of Aragon used the opposite word.^[9][10] Autoridades also recorded an Andalusian gaming sense, the stake that two players hold in common, from which come the DLE's sense “money gambled jointly” and the Latin American vaca or vaquita, money pooled by several people for a shared expense.^[9][5][11] In 1817 the Academy added the leather box carried on top of coaches and the vaca de San Antón, the ladybird.^[12]

In Argentina en vaca meant “in partnership”.^[3] Figurative uses for people are mostly insulting: a fat or unpleasant woman, and in Guatemala and Honduras a clumsy or foolish person.^[1][11] Moliner records vacas flacas and vacas gordas for lean and prosperous times.^[13] The cattle brought by the Spaniards spread the word to many languages of the Americas and the Philippines, as in waka, Paraguayan Guarani vaka and baka.^[1]

Timeline

• 931 – first record, as baca, in a charter.^[3][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has vacas among the spoils.^[8][3]
• 1224 – first record of the adjective vacuno.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario names orina de uaca “cow's urine”.^[14]
• 1335 – first record of vaquero “cowherd”.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates it bos and vacca.^[15]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[16]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the meat sense and the gaming stake.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy records vaca de San Antón, and vacuna and vacunar.^[12][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cow, the female of the bull, kept for meat and milk.^[5][1]
2. beef: the meat of a cow or ox as food.^[5][1]
3. Cowhide, the tanned skin of a cow.^[5][1]
4. Money that two or more people stake jointly in a game.^[5]
5. (nautical) A tank of fresh drinking water for the crew.^[5]
6. (Latin America) Money collected among several people to share an expense; a kitty: Hicimos una vaca para el regalo.^[5][11]
7. (colloquial, derogatory) A woman considered fat or unpleasant.^[1]
8. (Guatemala, Honduras, derogatory) A clumsy or foolish person.^[11]

Word family

• vacuno
• vaquero
• vaqueta
• vacada
• vaquilla
• vaquería

Related words

• vacuna
• Latin vacca
• French vache

Usage notes

Set names include vaca marina “manatee” and vaca de San Antón “ladybird”.^[13] The proverb tanto peca el que mata la vaca como el que le agarra la pata holds the accomplice as guilty as the culprit.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vaca
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 727
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vaca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. vaca
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. vacca
7. ^ a b c 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 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. vaca
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 405
10. ^ Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 448
11. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. vaca
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 874
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vaca
14. ^ 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. vaca
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 428
16. ^ 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. vaca
17. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica