On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 05:32:33 +0000, bagoven20 <
bagoven20@...>
wrote:
>I have so many questions mainly on Spanish words. Can anyone give me
>the story or etymology of the word "tripulante" for ship's crew? It
>seems to me that it came from Gk. 'tripolis' or 'three cities'. But
>which 'three cities'?
The word <atripular> is first recorded in Portuguese. It originally meant
"to exchange some of the old seamen with new crewmembers", later simply "to
crew a ship". Old Spanish also has a similar verb <tripular> "desechar y
reemplazar por otro". The origin is disputed, but probably Latin
INTERPOLARE, which should have given *entrebolare. This was interpreted as
*en-trebolare, and then gave trebolar ~ trepolar ~ tripular.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...