Hidalgo (Spanish Nobility) - Etymology

Etymology

Since at least the twelfth century, the words fijo d'algo (often literally translated as "son of something"), or its common contraction, fidalgo, was used in the Kingdoms of Castile and Portugal to refer to the nobility. In Portugal the cognate remained fidalgo, although these "nobles" had a somewhat different status from the Spanish hidalgos. In the Kingdom of Aragon, the counterpart of the Castilian hidalgos were called infanzones (singular: infanzón). With the changes in Spanish pronunciation that occurred in the late Middle Ages, the became silent, giving rise to the modern pronunciation and spelling, hidalgo. (see History of the Spanish language).

The term is a calque of the Arabic expressions which used ibn ("son") or bint ("daughter") and a noun to describe someone. Although the word algo generally means "something", in this expression, the word specifically denotes "riches" or "wealth"; therefore, it was originally a synonym of "noble" or ricohombre (literally a "rich man") in the Spanish of the period. With time, it colloquially came to mean the lower-ranking gentry (the untitled, lower strata of the nobility who were exempt from paying taxes). The Leyes de Partidas, assert that the word originally derives from itálico, that is, a man with full Roman citizenship, but this is discounted by modern etymologists and historians. There is no evidence for another popular folk etymology that the term is a corruption for hijo de godo However, all nobles whatever the titles that became more numerous only after 1200's, were called in the Kingdoms of Leon, Galicia, Portugal and Castile as Godos (Goths) and as descendants of those from the Kingdom of Toledo, and still is in common use in some regions but where it has a pejorative connotation from the lower rural folk point of view.

The condition of "nobles" as freemen without land wealth, but with the rights to wear arms and be exempted from paying taxes in compensation to their military service on call, was known among the previous Visigoths states. It was still in force by the law Fuero Juzgo. The Goths used the term as well the term Vesi, the "good men". The hidalgo byname from it, "sons of the good ones" was used alternatively with the toponymical other, "sons of La Montaña" as a continued instance of its use and meaning in Old Castile.