"Trabaculu Trabajo" the Case for and against

Author(s): J. Cary Davis

Source: Hispania, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 105-108
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/340402
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 NoTES ON USAGE 105

"TRABACULU * TRABAJO" THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST

J. CARY DAVIS
San Clemente, California
To those of us who once blithely ac-with Bloch and Von Wartburg (TRAVAIL,
cepted in good faith that model of phono- p. 860).
logical development first suggested by
3. Meyer-Liibke, W., Romanisches ety-
Diez1-Latin TRABACULU(M) a Sp. trabajo, mologisches Wirterbuch, 4th Ed., Heidel-
Port. trabalho (et al.)-it came as a rude
shock to find most later authorities sum- berg: Carl Winter, 1968, p. 741:
8911. *tripaliare 'qudlen,' 'martern,' vgl. tre-
marily dismissing this etymon in favor of
palium, 'ein aus drei Pfiihlen bestehendes Mar-
the Latin TRIPALIUM. The evidence for the terwerkzeug.'
latter choice, in various forms and lan-
Frz. travailler ( it. travagliare, friaul. travaydi),
guages, was clearly overwhelming. prov. trebalhar, kat. treballar, sp. trabajar, pg.
The statements of standard linguistic trabalhar, 'arbeiten.' - Ablt.: it. travaglio, friaul.
authorities show the basis of this modern travay, frz. travail, sp. trabajo, pg. trabalho;
point of view: siidfrz. trebaudd, 'schutteln' Gamillscheg, Zs. 43,
558.-P. Meyer, R. 17, 421. (*TRABACULUM
1. Corominas, J., Diccionario critico eti-
Diez 325 ist schon wegen prov. -b- nicht ma-
moldgico de la lengua castellana, Bern, glich)
1954, Iv, 520:
TRABAJO. La forma originaria hubo de tener en 4. Levy, E., Petit Dictionnaire proven-
todas partes la silaba inicial tre-, tal como, la Val-franqais, Heidelberg: Carl Winter,
conservan hasta el dia el catalin y la lengua de 1909, p. 371:
Oc: igualmente se dice treballo y treballer en el trebalh, tri-, tra- s.m. torture, tourment, souci,
alto-aragones de Ans6, Ayerbe y Loarre, triballo travail, peine, fatigue; tapage; t. d'ostal frais de
y triballar en Echo, Lanuza e Ipies. . . . La cuisine et de service.
vieja etimologia *TRABACULUM supuesta por trebalho, tra- s.f. tourment, tribulation, adver-
Diez (Wb. 325) ademAs de ser mais hipotbtica, site; travail, peine, fatigue; souci; violence, con-
estA contradicha no solo por la e del oc., cat. y troverse, dispute.
arag., y por la -b- de estos mismos idiomas, sino trebalhar v.a. torturer, tourmenter; v.n. peiner;
tambi-n por la -b- Cast., que es aproximadamente v. refl. peiner, s'occuper; se ficher.
constante en la Edad Media, y esti confirmada trebalhamen s.f. tourment.
por la graffa A Pal., Nebr., etc.
2. Bloch, 0. and Walther von Wart- 5. Rohlfs, G., From Vulgar Latin to
Old French, translated from the German
burg, Dictionnaire etymologique de la lan-
by Vincent Almazan and Lillian McCar-
gue frangaise, 5th Ed., Paris: P.U.F. 1968,
p. 646: thy, Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, 1970, p. 128:
(1) travail . machine ofi l'on assujettit les boeufs,
les chevaux difficules. P Lat. pop. tripalium Travailler . V.L. trepaliatus: This word is de-
attest6 en 578 sous la forme trepalium au sens rived from a late Latin noun trepalium, recorded
de a instrument de tortureP dans une d&cision from the sixth century. The word denoted an
du Concile d'Auxerre: Non licet presbytero nec instrument of torture consisting of three pickets.
Later the term came to mean the frame in
diacono ad tripalium ubi rei torquentur stare.
... (On a droit d'attendre *trevail; cette forme which horses or oxen were fastened when they
were treated by the veterinarian or had to be
a 6t' altere en travail d'aprbs la der. de tref
shod by a blacksmith. The latter meaning per-
, poutreP ... D'abord
.) sists today in Fr. travail and Ital. travaglio. The
(2) travailler a tourmenter, peiner, souf-
verb derived from the noun was usually reflex-
frir P, notamment en parlant d'une femme qui
ive in the Middle Ages: Fr. sei travaillier, Ital.
va accoucher, vers 1170, seuls sens du mot
travagliarsi, Sp. trabajarse, 'to torture oneself,' 'to
jusqu'au XVI, siecle . . . s'est substitu# A ouvrer exert oneself.' Only from the twelfth century did
depuis 1507. L. pop. *tripaliare, propr. a torturer
it slowly begin to take on the meaning of 'to
avec le tripalium ..
work'; the common verb formerly used (operare
Ernst Gamillscheg, Etymologisches P ovrer) did not disappear until the seventeenth
Warterbuch der franzosischen Sprache,
century.
Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1928, agreesP. 210, note 471: A final trace of the old

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 106 HISPANIA 60 (Mar. 1977)

meaning is shown
notion of in
(farm)the
worker expres
is already well
travail d'enfant, 'to suffer
established. labor p
(Cf. Sp. labrador.)
Cervantes' novel Los trabajos de P
munda in the The French travail,
meaning of pl. travails
'the (= trave,
ar
wanderings.' a frame for confining an unruly horse o
ox for shoeing) would seem to be th
6. Real Academia
early form of Espafiola,
this word if derived from
de la lengua TRIPALIUM,
espafiola, 19th
with the original sense, but
Espasa-Calpe, 1970:
note p. "trave"
that the English 1282: itself (lik
trabojor (Del lat. *tripaliare,
OFr. and Engadinian tref, Mod. Fr.de en-
trabajo (Del lat. *tripalium,
trave) apara
is undoubtedly from TRABE, "beam"
las caballerias, de tripalis, de tres
(Sp. trabe, Port. It. trave, Prov. trau), a
And well outstanding
some as Sp. traba, Port. Cat. trava: a hobble
yet sch
remained unconvinced,
for horses. How tempting to make the the easy
perhaps being the
transition from TRABAlate J. D.
tO TRABACULA (-LU)!
Trabecula as
Harvard. In his a learned form is found in
anthology of
several languages,
readings, p. 300, we including
read:2 English. If
trabojo (possiblywe have aL. formation
TRABALIS (= spike, beam- on
bem 'beam'; V.L. like) and Sp. traba, trabar (Port. Cat.[Cf
trabaculum
-e]3 'framework,' i.e.,
trava, travar) one
with stressed in
a from whi
a basic
fined, 'a hindrance,' 'trouble.'
TRABE, why not a TRABACULU as variant of Th
proposed also a V.L.
TRABICULU, *trepalium [
TRABECULU?
palus], i.e., a torture-frame ma
But what about
whence the word 'trouble.' The u
the phonological evi-
form, dence?
trebalh*s, The B-W notes the
favors that one might
latterex-
V.L. *trabare 'to catch in with beams,' etc., pect a French form *trevail, with refer-
might have acted upon the first syllable to pro-ence to a change "d'apr&s la derivation de
duce the other Romance forms. But?) trouble,tref."6 Corominas' discussion in regard to
toil, labor.... initial TRE-, TRI- is sound, but he makes no
Another eminent authority, Prof. Tati-suggestion for the change to tra- in French,
ana Fotitch, of the Catholic University ofSpanish, and other languages, perhaps be-
America, also puts a [?] after the word cause the example of other Romance words
trabajo in the vocabulary of her anthology.4 shows that no special rule is needed here
Semantically, either origin is acceptable: to explain why Latin TRI-, TRE- * tra- in
"travel" (English) can be both "torture" Spanish, Portuguese, French, Provenqal,
and "difficulty." To most women child- Catalan, etc.-in fact, why unstressed /e/
birth, travail, has always been difficult, frequently * /a/ and vice versa-beyond
painful, pure agony, but what average be-that of the general process of assimilation,
nighted male in the Middle Ages would beassisted often, as here, by an adjacent /r/.
apt to consider such rewarding labor as Cf. Sp. maravilla, It. maraviglia, meravig-
"torture"? Of course "work" itself is a lia, Port. maravilha, Prov. mer(a)velha,
conquering of obstacles, is it not?-even mar(a)velha,
a mir-, merb (, L. MIRABILIA);
"torture" to some. But ... ? Sp. arveja (' ERVILIA); Sp. barbecho,
Port. barbeito, Prov. garach, Cat. guaret,
Two further listings from Levy shouldbut Fr. gueret (a VERVACTU); Fr. marche'
be considered as pertinent to the argu- (' MERCATU); Sp. salvaje, Fr. sauvage
ment:
(' OFr. salvage e SELVATICU). This type
trebalhador s.m. ge6lier; celui qui moleste?; t.
of assimilation occurs less readily in Cata-
de terra laboureur, cultivateur.
lan and Italian; in the latter, unstressed
trebalhos adj. tracassier, turbulent, difficile.5
/e/ in an initial syllable tends rather to be
raised to /i/: RECEPTA * Cat. recepta, It.
The meaning of "gaoler" is a highly
ricetta,
interesting one. Is he the one who tor- ME(N)SURA * Cat. mesura, It. mi-
sura.
tures the prisoner, or merely the one whoHence the listing by Meyer-Lilbke of
interposes obstacles, i.e. "beams" (TRABS,
Italian forms travaglio, travagliare as bor-
rowings
TRABES), to his escape? Note also that thefrom the French; he does not so

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 NOTES ON USAGE 107

list the It. variantmay be close relatives-if nothowever,

maraviglia, "blood rela-
the Sp. trabajar, tives,"
Port. at least trabalhar, and t
"brothers-by-adoption." The
noun forms. Asorigin
stated of trebejo is above, the B
even less well settled
notes that one would
than trabajo. Forexpect
instance, Corominasan has (O)F
*trevail, with /e/
this to say:as in Provencal
Catalan. TREBEJO 'juego,' 'objeto para jugar,' en port.
Corominas cites the intermediate -b- of trebelho, origen incierto, quizai diminutivo de
trabajo as being "rather constant" in the trebe (variante de trebede 'tripode,' que en vari-
os romances se aplic6 a diversos enseres, y pudo
Castilian of the Middle Ages. This is true
extenderse a todo objeto de juego. 1a doc.: 1200,
but there are exceptions. The Tentative Disputa del Alma y el Cuerpo.lO
Dictionary of Medieval Spanish8 lists tra-
vajo as a secondary spelling and cites this He goes on to say that it cannot come
variant from a verse of Berceo's, with thefrom trabajar, as proposed by Covarrubias,
meaning of "difficulty." The verb form or TREPIDULUS (Meyer-Liibke and others),
with -v- is also cited, from the same nor from TRABACULA or TRABECULA (Spitz-
er).
source.9 There are many intermediate /b/
But, cf. the RAE Dictionary and Meyer-
- /v/ variants in Old Spanish, most of Liabke's REW:
them from an original /b/ or /p/, such as
alba - alva (L. ALBA), trabar - travar 1) trebejo (Como el port. trebelho y trabelho,
del lat. trabecula, d. de trabs, viga, madero.) ...
(from TRABA), etc., but there are signifi-
trebejoiar (De trebejo) intr. Travesear, enredar,
cant exceptions, from original /v/, e.g. juguetear, retozar. 2. p.us. jugar.11
pabura - pavura (L. PAVOR), brabo - 2) 8822a. trabiculum 'Stackchen.' Pg. trabelho,
brabo (L. BRAVUM), corbo - corvo (L.
'Holzpflockchen an der Sige,' 'Fuszfessel' Spitzer
CURVUM), Vierba - vierva (L. CERVA), 134 (Sp. trebejo, pg. trebelho s. 8881a.)
labar - lavar (L. LAVARE). Such forms as8881a. *trepidulare 'spielen.' Sp. trebejar, pg.
abivar, abolver, are of course compounds trebelhar. - Ablt.: sp. trebejo, 'Splelzeug,'
derived from shorter stems bivo and bolver, 'Schachtfigur,' pg. trebelho, 'Spielzeug,' trabelho,
and regularly spelled with initial /b/ in 'Schachtfigur.' Briich, BAR. 3,71. (Zu TRABICULA
Old Spanish, while conbidar, and conbus- 8822a Spitzer 134 liegt ferner.)12
co, and their like represent /v/ [15] assimi- And Ford has an entirely different ety-
lated by /n/ to /b/ [b], as in the modern mon:
tranvia [trambia] and un vaso [umbaso]. trebeio = trebejo (perhaps an abstra
But what about the above-mentioned bar-
trebejar, V.L. *triviliare 'to sport' as
becho (from VERVAcru), abogado (from at the crossroads, a common place for
A(D)VOCATU), and OSp. gibdat, Vipdat gather in and have games, from L.
(from CIVITATE)? These may be rare ex- 'crossroad' . . . (Cf. It. trebbio, 'plac
amples of /v/ * /b/, but they do exist. three roads meet,' 'diversion,' 'fun,'
trivial.) a3
Where does this leave us? With the pos-
sibility, however remote, that trabajo (et Again, Tatiana Fotitch contents herself
al.) could be derived from a TRABACULU with a question mark: trebejo [?].1'
etymon, but admittedly more probably So then we have Corominas suggesting
from the TRIPALIUM generally adopted? (for trebejo) the Latin etymon TRIPES-
There remains, however, a third possibil- TRIPEDE, the RAE and Spitzer TRABECULA,
ity, a factor which should be considered. Covarrubias TRABAJAR, Meyer-Liibke (et
Ford's reference to V.L. *TRABARE sug- al.) TREPIDULUS a 'TREPIDULARE, and so
gests a secondary influence, if not a cross- on. Yet all, or almost all, aree on TRIPA-
ing, which ultimately postulates a possible LIUM as the source of trabajo, trabalho,
"double derivation" for our form, at least travail, etc., and 'TRIPALIARE for the verb
in Spanish and Portuguese. In addition to forms trabajar, trabalhar, and others.
the likelihood of analogical influence from With such a confusion of theories-and
TRABARE and TRABE, as far as this writer evidence-one is loath, like Ford, to aban-
knows no one has yet proposed that trabajo don TRABACULUM entirely. In lieu of fur-
(trabalho) and trebejo (trebelho, trebalho) ther conclusive evidence, may not the

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 108 HISPANIA 60 (Mar. 1977)

truth lie somewhere

6Bloch-Vonin between?
Wartburg, op. cit., p. 646. Do
not have here a confusion or
7The lowering effect of contam
/r/ can also be seen
in English, where we have Clark from clerk,
tion between trebejo-trebelho-trabe
market from L.and
from whatever source, MJERCArT, through Old French
trabajo-tra
(Cf. German Markt, and the Danish markt
from TRIPALIUM (TRABACULUM??), in
from which English mart is derived), as well as
enced surely by/e/s
the various
pronounced derivat
like /a/s in sergeant, arnd in
from TRABE itself?
British names such as Derby, Kerr, and others.
The Defense (Prosecution?) rests
sBoggs, Kasten, Keniston, and Richardson,
case. Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish
(Chapel Hill), 1946 (Mimeographed), pp. 501,
NOTES 502, 505.
'Diez, Friedrich, Etymologisches Worterbuch
9Gonzalo de Berceo, Vida de Sa ,to Domingo
der romanischen Sprachen, 5th ed. (Bonn:deMar-
Silos, edici6n critica by Fray Alonso Andres
cus, 1853), (325). (Madrid: Padres Benedictinos, 1958), v. 663
2Ford, J. D. M., Old Spanish Readings(trauaio),
(New p. 79, and v. 397 (trauaio), p. 48.
York: Ginn, 1906, 1911), p. 300. lOCorominas, op. cit., p. 557, with an ex-
-= spike, beamlike. tended discussion through p. 560.
4Fotitch, Tatiana, An Anthology of Old Span-
11Real Academia Espafiola, op. cit., p. 1294.
ish (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic Univer-
12Meyer-Liibke, op. cit., pp. 732, 738.
sity of America Press, 1969), p. 247. 13Ford, op. cit., p. 302.
5Levy, op. cit., p. 371. 14Fotitch, op. cit., p. 247.

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE IN THE

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Conducted by LEONOR A. LAREW*

SIMULATION WORKS IN THE SPANISH CLASS

LEONORE R. MANDELSON
Fairport Central School, Fairport, N.Y.
Simulation is an especially excitingThe project consisted primarily in the
technique for teaching an understanding
creation and use of a simulation game as a
of complex interactions within the class-
teaching device in the Spanish classroom.
room setting. The technique has often
Opportunities were offered for both small
been utilized in social studies classes, but
group and individual participation by stu-
there is no reason why language teachers dents.
may not find the technique useful at all Calling this simulation the "Chicano
levels of instruction, including FLES. Game," I used a profile or case history of a
In the Fairport, New York Central
fictitious Spanish-speaking person in the
School system, under the Mini-Grant Pro-
United States-a person about the age of
gram, I developed a project to engage my the pupils. Teams made decisions about
Spanish language pupils on new levelsthis of person's education, occupation, fam-
thought, action, and feeling, and to try
to enlist the student's emotional commit- ily, and leisure time for periods ranging
from ten weeks to four months. Spinners
ment to what he is learning by introduc-and dice built in a "chance" or "luck"
ing relevance within the curriculum.
factor. The simulation kit included play-
ers' manuals, guides, schedules, and other
* Articles for this section may be sent to Prof.
forms, plus unplanned event cards, grade
Leonor A. Larew, New York State University
College, Geneseo, N.Y. 14454. transcripts, and job applications.

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