curral

Forms

curral m (plural currais)^[1] Houaiss records cural in 1337, curraaes in 1391, curraes in the 14th century and currall in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The word, written Old Galician-Portuguese curral in the oldest texts, is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *currāle (“race-course; place where carts are kept”), from Latin currus (“chariot, cart”), an explanation of Menéndez Pidal that Corominas accepts.^[2][4][1][5] Corominas ties Spanish corral to corro (“enclosure; ring of people”) and finds it unclear which of the two is derived from the other: if the shorter word is a back-formation, the longer one may come from the Latin noun.^[6][7]

Adolfo Coelho, Vieira and Figueiredo took it for a derivative of curro.^[8][9][10] Krüger thought of a pre-Roman word built on a Celtic root meaning “ring of stones”, and Roth of Vulgar Latin *quadrālis.^[4] Diez and García de Diego derived it from currō (“to run”), without grounds.^[4]

The same word is Galician curral and the Spanish one, first recorded in 1014.^[1][7] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *korzos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”), from the root *ḱers- (“to run”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1054 already has the Romance word: Iª casa integra et uno cural “one whole house and a pen”.^[4] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a crowd fills a curral, and a raging man bites “like a fierce dog that guards its yard” (come can bravo que guarda seu curral): an enclosed yard by a house, where animals were kept.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries of Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate the word with Latin stabulum, and Barbosa lists pens for oxen, goats, sheep and hens.^[11][12] Morais (1789) defines it as an enclosure of stakes for cattle and adds a church sense, a space fenced with benches for people of rank; his 1813 edition adds the enclosure used to catch fish.^[13][14] Vieira also gives a courtyard inside a building.^[9]

The old Caldas Aulete records obsolete senses: the yard where comedies were played, a well-furnished comfortable house, and the camp or residence of an African chief; it also gives a valley hard to reach in Madeira.^[15] From the derogatory “filthy house”, recorded by Figueiredo in 1899,^[10] Brazil developed the curral eleitoral, the place where political agents kept their voters on election day and then the voters a politician controls.^[2][16] In Ceará the word means a red-light district.^[2][17]

Through Dutch kraal, the word reached South Africa and English: kraal “village, pen”, recorded in English from 1731.^[1][18]

Timeline

• 1054 – a Latin charter writes uno cural.^[4]
• 13th century – curral in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][3]
• 1337 – cural; 1391 – curraaes.^[2]
• 14th century – first record of the derivative curralejo.^[3]
• 1547 – a private letter writes curral.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates it as stabulum.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists pens for oxen, goats, kids, sheep and hens.^[12]
• 1731 – the English word kraal, through Dutch.^[18]
• 1789 – Morais adds the church sense.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais adds the fish trap.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pen or corral: an enclosed place where livestock, especially cattle, are gathered and kept.^[2][20][1]
2. (derogatory) A dirty, squalid house or place.^[2][21]
3. (Brazil) A fish trap of stakes set in a river or near the shore.^[2][20]
4. (Brazil) curral eleitoral: the voters that a politician controls; formerly, the place where they were kept and fed on election day.^[2][16]
5. (Ceará, informal) A red-light district.^[2][17]
6. (Madeira) A closed valley between mountains, hard to reach.^[2][22]
7. (military) An area where an army in the field keeps its vehicles and equipment.^[2][22]
8. (obsolete) A yard where comedies were performed.^[2][22]

Word family

• curralejo
• encurralar

Related words

• curro
• Latin currus
• Galician curral
• Spanish corral

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. curral
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. curral
4. ^ a b c d e f g Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. curral
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. curral
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 202
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. corral
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 146
9. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 675
10. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 371
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. curral
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. curral
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 356
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 505
15. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. curral
16. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. curral
17. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. curral
18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. kraal
19. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. curral
20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. curral
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. curral
22. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. curral