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Sp. padrino and madrina
The Spanish words padrino
and madrina, which translate as godfather and godmother, have no cognates in English either. They do not derive
from Classical Latin words but rather were created in western Vulgar Latin out
of the words māter (accusative mātr‑em) and păter (accusative: pătr‑em)
and the adjective-forming suffix ‑īn‑ that added the sense of ‘of or pertaining to’, indicating
some kind of relationship, such as origin, but also others (variants of this suffix were ‑ān‑, ‑ēn‑, ‑iān‑, and ‑ūn‑). This together with the
masculine ‑us and feminine ‑a inflections resulted in the words *pătrīnus and mātrīna (the latter attested
in the 6th century), which meant ‘godfather’ and ‘godmother’ respectively, just
like their descendants do today. (Corominas mentions that there is an attested patrinius in early Spanish glosses with
the meaning ‘stepfather’.) Cognates of Sp. padrino
in other Romance languages include French parrain,
Italian padrino, Portuguese padrinho, Catalan padrí, and Occitan pairin.
Cognates of Sp. madrina in other Romance
languages include Italian madrina,
Occitan mairina, Portuguese madrinha. Curiously, the Catalan word
for ‘godmother’ is padrina, not madrina, an innovation only found in
this Romance language.
The
primary meaning of Sp. padrino is ‘godfather’,
that is, ‘a man who sponsors a person at baptism’ (AHD), a concept found in the
Catholic and other Christian traditions that comes from late Roman times. In
Spanish, the word has expanded its meanings and can now also mean any man who ‘sponsors’,
‘introduces’, or assists another person in any of the other Catholic
sacraments, such as confirmation, matrimony, or priestly ordination, though
those uses are much less common and some, such as confirmation, is outdated.
Thus, for example, it is the word used for (typically) the bride’s father giving
his daughter away at a wedding. The term godfather
in the religious sense in English is typically restricted to baptism, not to
the other sacraments.
Wikipedia
explains the role of godparent, which includes a godfather and a godmother, in
the following way:
in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who bears witness to a child’s baptism and then aids in their catechesis, as well as their lifelong spiritual formation. In the past, in some countries, the role carried some legal obligations as well as religious responsibilities. In both religious and civil views, a godparent tends to be an individual chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child’s upbringing and personal development, to offer mentorship or claim legal guardianship of the child should anything happen to the parents.[i]
Among the Christian denominations that still
follow the tradition of having godparents are the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican
Communion (Church of England), the Lutheran churches, the Methodist Church, and
the Orthodox Church(es).
Interestingly, until the 5th century the godparents in
baptism were the child’s parents, but by the 6th century they had been replaced
by other individuals. The godparents were the ‘spiritual parents’ of the child
and by the end of the 6th century we find that they were being referred to as
co-parents, giving rise to the Latin terms compater
‘co-father’ and commater ‘co-mother’
that we will see in the next section. The sacrament of confirmation arose in
the western Christian (Catholic) Church in the 8th century and a different set
of godparents were to be chosen for that purpose, a tradition that is not as
common today.
One Christian sacrament besides baptism in which the figures
of the padrino and the madrina have not disappeared is the
wedding (Sp. boda), where people are
joined in ‘holy matrimony’ (Sp. santo
matrimonio), which is another one of the Catholic sacraments. A padrino and a madrina are traditionally chosen in Catholic weddings and often the
padrino is the father of the bride
and the madrina the mother of the
groom, though the roles can be filled by other relatives or close friends.
These roles are somewhat analogous to the roles of best man and maid of honor
in modern Anglo cultures, though in the latter, the roles are typically played
by the groom and bride’s best friends of the same gender. The role of padrino at a wedding is also somewhat
analogous to the role of father of the
bride, who ‘gives away’ the bride. In some countries in the
Spanish-speaking world that have weddings that are modelled more on the Anglo
style, the term padrino is used for
all the groomsmen or ushers and the term madrina
is used for all of the bridesmaids, though another term for them is testigos ‘witnesses’.
Derived from the sacramental sense, a second sense of padrino is that of ‘man who introduces
and accompanies another one who is receiving some honor or degree’ or who
enters in ‘literary competitions, tournaments, duels, and other challenges’
(DLE). Although Spanish-English dictionaries typically give godfather as the single possible
translation of Sp. padrino, the best
translation for this sense of Sp. padrino
is sponsor, not godfather.
Eng. godfather does have other senses besides
the baptismal one. A second sense of Eng. godfather
is, according to one dictionary, ‘one having a relation to someone or something
analogous to that of a male sponsor to his godchild: such as a : one that
founds, supports, or inspires’, as in the phrase the godfather of a whole generation of rebels (MWC), that is, ‘a
man who is influential or pioneering in a movement or organization’ (COED). Sp.
padrino is not used with this sense.
A third
sense of Eng. godfather is ‘a head of
an illegal organization, especially a leader of the American Mafia’ (COED).
This sense was started as slang in the US and many connect it to the use of
this word in the title of the 1972 Hollywood blockbuster film The Godfather, based on a 1968 novel by
Mario Puzo. Mafia bosses (Sp. capo),
such as the one in the New York crime family depicted in the film, Vito
Corleone (played by Marlon Brando), were often asked to be the godfather of
children by their parents in the hopes that that way they would be the
beneficiaries of their largesse. Although the title of this film was translated
into Spanish as El padrino, the word padrino is not used with this sense in
Spanish and neither can its Italian cognate padrino.
As we saw, the woman’s analog of padrino is madrina
‘godmother’. In baptisms, and sometimes in other Christian sacraments, such as
at Christian weddings, there is a madrina
along a padrino, as we saw above. The
term madrina is also used for a woman who accompanies another person who
receives a degree or some other honor, much as in the case of a padrino. The term madrina is also used
for a woman who helps or protects another person in their aims or designs.
Hence the common figure found in fairy tales, el hada madrina ‘fairy godmother’. Another related role of the madrina, this one specific to godmothers
and not godfathers, is that of being
the one who launches a boat or ship, typically by smashing a bottle of
champagne against its haul. (The verb for to launch a boat is botar un barco in Spanish.) Those are
the main senses of the Spanish noun madrina.
The act of becoming someone’s padrino is called in Spanish apadrinar
‘to be a godfather for (someone)’, as in Apadriné
a mi nieta en su bautizo ‘I was my niece’s godfather in her baptism’, or
also ‘to sponsor (someone)’, as in El
veterano director apadrinó al joven realizador en sus primeras películas ‘The
veteran director sponsored the young producer in his early films’ (Vox). This
verb is formed from the root with the prefix a‑ and the verbal suffix ‑ar
(see the discussion on parasynthetic verbs in Part I, Section 5.6.1.1).
English too turned the noun godfather
into a verb, to godfather, since at
least the late 18th century, with the meaning ‘to act as godfather to’, but it
is not a common word. Note, for instance, that we wouldn’t use this verb to
translate Sp. apadrinar in the next
to the last sentence.
And just like the noun padrino
was turned into the verb apadrinar,
so the noun madrina was turned into
the verb amadrinar. In the context of
baptism, this verbs means ‘to be the godmother to’, as in Amadrinó a su nieta ‘She was her granddaughter’s godmother’. In the
context of a wedding, amadrinar
refers to filling the role of madrina
at a wedding as explained above, whose main function is to assist the
bridegroom and accompany him to the church. Finally, amadrinar is used in the context of the launching of boats and is
thus equivalent to Eng. launch or christen.[1]
The English terms godfather,
godmother, and godparents go back to Old English and were created by prefixing god‑ to the words father, mother, and so
on. That is because godparents were supposed to be involved in teaching
Christian values (and doctrine) to their godchildren. Analogous forms with the
same prefix are used in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch, Old Icelandic,
and Swedish.[2]
In some of the Germanic languages, however, these analogous (cognate) terms
have become archaic or obsolete today.
Along
with the terms we just saw formed with the prefix god‑, English also had the terms godson, goddaughter, and godchild. The Spanish equivalents of
these terms are ahijado and ahijada. These nouns are look identical
to the past participles of the verb ahijar
derived from the root hij‑ of the
words hijo ‘son’ and hija ‘daughter’. Sp. ahijar is first attested in the 11th
century but it is archaic if not obsolete today, though it is still found in
dictionaries and its meaning is ‘to adopt’ (cf. Modern Sp. adoptar). Sp. ahijar also
has additional related dictionary meanings that are even less common today than
the main one, such as ‘to procreate, have children’. This verb can be described
as containing the root hij‑ (of hijo and hija), the same prefix a‑
that we saw in the verb apadrinar,
and first conjugation verbal inflections.
Actually,
the word ahijado/a descends from an
adjective created in Late Latin, affiliātus/a
‘adopted as son/daughter’ derived from the verb affīlĭāre ‘to adopt (as
son/daughter)’, which was derived from the root fīlĭ‑ of fīlĭus/a ‘son/daughter’ and the prefix ad‑ ‘to’. This verb was borrowed
into Spanish in the 19th century from Latin (a cultismo) as afiliar,
meaning ‘to make somebody a member of an organization’, which is most commonly
conjugated reflexively, as afiliarse
‘to join or become a member of an organization’, as in becoming a card-carrying
member of an organization, as in for example Yo nunca me afilié al Partido Comunista ‘I never (officially)
joined the Communist Party’. The verb no doubt came through French, which
borrowed it first, in the early 18th century, from Medieval Latin, cf. Fr. affilier, with the same meaning it has
in Spanish. (Actually, French adopted this verb with the meaning ‘to adopt’ in
the 15th century, but then reborrowed it again in the 18th century with the
sense ‘to join an organization’.)
Along
with this verb, Spanish got the past
participle afiliado/a of this verb,
which can be used as an adjective, as in No
estoy afiliado ‘I am not a member’, but also as a noun with the meaning
‘member (of a club or association)’, as in los
afiliados al club ‘the (official) club members’. This word is a cognate—and false-friend—of the English noun affiliate [ə.ˈfɪ.lɪə̯t],
which is a mid-18th century loan from Latin
affiliātus. It means ‘a person, organization, or
establishment associated with another as a subordinate, subsidiary, or member’
(AHD), as in the phrase a network
affiliate, and its Spanish equivalent is the feminine noun filial, cf. Sp. una filial televisiva, director
de filial ‘branch head’.[3]
English also borrowed the Latin verb affīlĭāre in the 18th century,
though French no doubt. As usual, English borrowed this Latin verb by copying
its passive participle verb form affiliātus
and converting it into affiliate,
spelled like the noun we just saw but pronounced slightly differently: [ə.ˈfɪ.li.eɪ̯t]. One dictionary says that
this verb means ‘to officially attach or connect to an organization’ (COED), just
like its French and Spanish cognates, though other dictionaries are perhaps
more correct when they say that the attachment may be unofficial, as in the definition ‘to join or become connected with a larger group or organization’, as in She affiliated herself with the Impressionist
school of painting (DOCE), which doesn’t mean that she was an official or card-carrying
member of an organization. This means that these two cognates are not
equivalent in use, although their dictionary meanings seem very similar.
Besides afiliarse, other verbs that
translate Eng. affiliate when the
affiliation is not a formal one but more of a informal connection are adherirse, asociarse, and unirse
(all followed by the preposition a).
Both of
these verbs have participles that can be used as adjectives, namely Eng. afiliated and Sp. afiliado/a, as in Eng. to be
affiliated to something ~ Sp. estar
afiliado/a a algo. Note that the Spanish word is identical to the noun we
saw above that was cognate with the English noun affiliate. These adjectives are are ‘close friends’ semantically
but, again, they are not used the same way. When affiliated is used in the
‘being connected to/with’ sense, rather than the ‘formally attached as a
member’ sense, Eng. affiliated
translates most commonly into Spanish as asociado/a,
not afiliado/a, which has more the
sense of being a formal member of an organization, such as a card-carrying
member.
[GO TO PART 6]
[GO TO PART 6]
[1] The verb christen [ˈkʰɹɪsən] today can be used with the meaning ‘to
give something or someone a name’, as in His
fans christened him the king of rock (DOCE) which in the case of ships at
least involves a ceremonial dedication. This verb’s original meaning, which is
still current, is ‘to officially give a child its name at a Christian religious
ceremony’, as in She was christened Sarah
(DOCE). After all, this verb comes from Old English cristnian ‘to baptize’ or, literally ‘to make Christian’, derived from
Old English cristen ‘Christian’. In
some dialects of English at least, the verb christen can be used informally
with the meaning ‘to use something for the first time’, equivalent to inaugurar in Spanish, as in We haven’t christened the new garden chairs
yet (DOCE).
[2] Old English also had a word godsibb, later godsib, derived from the Old English sibb, which could be an adjective meaning ‘Related by blood or
descent; akin’ and a noun meaning ‘a kinsman or kinswoman’ (OED). The compound godsibb meant ‘godparent’. This word
evolved into the modern word gossip.
The story of the meaning change is quite interesting. First, by the 14th century,
the noun came to be used to refer to ‘a familiar acquaintance, friend, chum.
Formerly applied to both sexes… [and later only] to women’ (OED). Then by the
16th century the word was being used for ‘a person, mostly a woman, of light
and trifling character, esp. one who delights in idle talk; a newsmonger, a
tattler’ (OED). By the early 19th century the meaning had evolved to ‘the
conversation of such a person; idle talk; trifling or groundless rumour;
tittle-tattle’ (OED).
[3] A snonym of this noun filial is sucursal in
some contexts. The word filial can
also be used as an adjective in Spanish, in which case it means ‘of the son,
filial’, as in amor filial ‘filial
love’, ‘a child’s love’ or else, in the world of commerce, ‘subsidiary’, as in una empresa
filial ‘a subsidiary company’.
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