Re: Etymology of "Macho"

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 23:34:39 GMT, "Joseph W. Murphy"
<jwmurphy700@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Some of the responses to my inquiry concerning "La Chingada" got me thinking
>about the equally Mexican words "macho" and "machismo". When I looked in my
>Webster's Collegiate, it says the word is derived from Latin "masculinus".
>That looks like quite a jump. Does anyone have any more on this to fill in
>the interstices? I find it a little odd because "masculino" is still very
>much alive in Mexican Spanish.

macho comes from masculus "male" (itself originally the
diminutive of mas, maris "male"). masculinus is a
derivative of masculus.

masculus was reduced already in Latin to masclus (App. Probi
"masculus non masclus"). This gives It. maschio, Cat.
mascle, Fr. mâle (< masle < mascle), etc. (Romanian <mare>
"big" comes from mas, maris). In Spanish -cl- usually
develops to /z^/ > /s^/ > /x/ (oric(u)la > oreja), but when
/l/, /n/, /s/ or /k/ preceeds, the result is /c^/:

cacc(u)lu(m) > cacho
cing(u)lu(m) > cincho
conc(u)la(m) > concha
manc(u)la(m) > mancha
trunc(u)lu(m) > troncho

-ngl- generally gives ñ (ung(u)la(m) > uña).

There are some exceptions in the cases of -scl- and -ngl-:

sing(u)lu(m) > sendo
misc(u)lare > mezclar (perhaps a later learned borrowing)
musc(u)lu(m) > muslo (perhaps to avoid confusion with mucho
< multu(m)).

The word <masculino> is a recent borrowing from Latin.

>Also, is "macho" strictly a Latin-American word or does it creep into
>European Spanish too?

It was European Spanish before it was Mexican.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@xxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Etymology of "Macho"
    ... How interesting that "macho" ultimately results from a Latin diminutive ... >>masculus was reduced already in Latin to masclus (App. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Etymology of "Macho"
    ... about the equally Mexican words "macho" and "machismo". ... it says the word is derived from Latin "masculinus". ... masculus was reduced already in Latin to masclus (App. ... What about Sard? ...
    (sci.lang)