vasco

Forms

vasco (feminine vasca, masculine plural vascos, feminine plural vascas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote uasco, vasco and basco;^[2][1] Wiktionary also lists the spelling Basco.^[2][1]

Etymology

Wiktionary takes it as inherited from Latin Vascō (“a Vascon”), the singular of the tribal name Vascōnēs, continued in its nominative form, and calls vascón, from the oblique stem, its doublet.^[1][3] The DLE derives it from that Spanish word itself,^[4] and Cunha, Machado and Houaiss, who take the Portuguese word from Spanish, call the Spanish one a back-formation from it.^[5][6][7]

Gómez de Silva thinks the Latin name probably belongs with the stem of the Basque name of the language, Basque euskara;^[3] Wikcionario explains it as a metathesis of the tribal name Auscus.^[8]

From Spanish come Portuguese basco and, through a Portuguese diminutive, the garment basquiña.^[5][9] The Latin name is also the source of Catalan basc and, through Gascon, of French basque; the name of the Gascons, French gascon, comes from the same Latin word, with the initial /w/ probably owed to Germanic influence.^[10][11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) names the Basques among the peoples with languages of their own: et otrossi los uascos & los nauarros “and also the Basques and the Navarrese”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the Academy's dictionaries up to 1869 vasco was only a synonym of vascongado.^[13] Salvá defined it in 1846 as a native of Gascony,^[14] and the Academy's 1884 edition added the natives of part of the French department of Basses-Pyrénées.^[15] Its 1899 edition first gave the etymology, De vascón.^[16] The noun for the Basque language, alongside euskera and vascuence, was in the Academy's dictionary by 2001.^[17] Today the DLE describes the language as one with no proven relationship to any other, spoken in the Spanish and French Basque Country and in part of Navarre.^[4]

Timeline

• 1272 – DEMel records the form Uasco in the Repartimiento de Orihuela.^[2]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria names the uascos with the Navarrese.^[12]
• 1846 – Salvá defines vasco as a native of Gascony.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the natives of part of the Basses-Pyrénées.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from vascón.^[16]
• 2001 – the Academy's 22nd edition gives the noun for the language.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or from the Basque Country (País Vasco); as a noun, a Basque: Su abuela era vasca, de un pueblo de Guipúzcoa.^[4][1]
2. Belonging or relating to the Basque Country or the Basques.^[4][18]
3. Belonging or relating to the Basque language: un nombre vasco.^[4][18]

Noun

1. The Basque language, euskera, a language with no proven relationship to any other, spoken in the Spanish and French Basque Country and in part of Navarra.^[4][1][19]

Related words

• vascón
• vascongado
• vascuence
• euskera
• basquiña
• Latin Vascō
• Portuguese basco

Usage notes

The DLE records the set phrase pelota vasca, the Basque ball game.^[4] Other names for the language are euskera and vascuence.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vasco
3. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 716
4. ^ 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. vasco
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 481
6. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 394
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. basco
8. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vasco
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 536
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. basc
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. gascó
12. ^ 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. vasco
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 781
14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1097
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1073
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1005
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. vasco
18. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos