is a

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

term derived from a noble surname of northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, the Cachopín of Laredo (present-day

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

). It was popularized during the

Spanish Golden Age The Spanish Golden Age (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Siglo de Oro'', , "Golden Century"; 1492 – 1681) was a period of literature and the The arts, arts in Spain that coincided with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic M ...

as a stereotype and literary

stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a type of character in a narrative (e.g. a novel, play, television show, or film) whom audiences recognize across many narratives or as part of a storytelling tradition or convention. Th ...

representing the hidalgo (petty nobility) class which was characterized as arrogant and overbearing. It may also be spelled , , or . The term remained popular in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, where it would come to be used in the

Cry of Dolores The Cry of Dolores () occurred in Dolores Hidalgo, Dolores, Mexico, on 16 September 1810, when Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell and gave the pronunciamiento, call to arms that triggered the Mexican War of Indep ...

Definitions, origin and use

The (1729) defines as "The Spaniard that goes and lives in the West Indies, called in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The phrase was brought from those countries, and is frequently used in

Andalucia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It i ...

, and between merchants en route to the West Indies." Since the 1780 edition, the academic dictionary, recognizes the variant beginning with the letter "g" understood to have arisen in the New World: "In The Indies, where they say " or "". The 1925 edition signals that the etymology is from the Portuguese , or child, and restricts the geographic extent of its use to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The current Dictionary of the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...

derives it from the term . In 1992, Antonio Alatorre explained that Jorge de Montemayor coined the term in 1557 in his pastoral work ''.'' Montemayor was amused by the interaction of forms and meanings between this prestigious Spanish surname and the word he knew from his native Portuguese ''cachopo'', which means "touchy," "crag," or "boy." In ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'',

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his no ...

uses the word similarly. This may be a conscious reference to , as later in ''Don Quixote'', a copy of is narrowly rescued from being burnt. In the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, the word would lose this unique meaning, though it would survive in La Mancha into the late twentieth century. In the 18th century, Friar Servando Teresa de Mier inferred that the etymology of arose from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

composed of meaning "shoe", and , meaning "sharp", referring to the Spanish who wore spurs. This method of determining etymology, in use in de Mier's time and earlier, became considered antiquated by the later philology of the 19th-century German meogrammarians. This school would argue against determining etymology primarily through lexical similarity, and not considering

Sound change In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...

, which they thought to be the driver of lexical evolution. The word took root especially in

and

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, referring to the idea of the upstart Spaniard. In the 19th century it was used in pro-independence slogans such as ("Death to the peninsulares") as part of one version of Miguel Hidalgo's

. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán would bring the word back into the continental vocabulary in his 1926 novel . The word may be used colloquially either ironically or to indicate disrespect, depending on the context.

Examples

*, 1559, Jorge de Montemayor, * and , 1591, ''J. de Cárdenas, Problemas y Secretos Maravillosos de las Indias.'' *, 1605 Cervantes, ''Don Quixote'' * ''Cry of Dolores''

References

{{Reflist, 2 Anti-Spanish sentiment Spanish words and phrases Pejorative terms for European people Ethnic and religious slurs

Definitions, origin and use

Examples

See also

References