Glossary

This glossary describes the meanings of some of the words in the manuscripts of this website that present an old Spanish spelling or may be no longer in use in standard contemporary Spanish.

Alarde – inspection or review of troops, usually with an official present

Albañi – see Albañil

Albañil – a mason or artisan specializing in the construction, repair, and alteration of buildings made with materials like bricks, stones, mortar or cement

Alcaide – a warden; person responsible for a garrison in a fortress or prison. The alcaide swore in his position by oath or tribute

Alcalde Mayor – a judge or magistrate in lands/districts of secular or ecclesiastical dominion

Alguacil – judicial official with policing functions such as arrests, surveillance, patrolling and the inquiries about complaints and reports

Almojarifazgo – a type of tariff on imports generally collected by a private individual who rented it out from the government

Almojarife – an official in charge of collecting the almojarifazgo. Sometimes this post could be bought from the crown through an advanced payment

Amancebado, a – person who cohabitates with another in an intimate fashion without adhering to civil or ecclesiastical matrimony

Amancebamiento – concubinage, a relationship between two individuals without being married

Apelación – an appeal, a request to amend a decision made by a higher court or tribunal

Apelar – to appeal, to request an amendment of a decision made by a higher court or tribunal that was considered to be unjust

Armada – navy, fleet, group of vessels sailing together

Asiento – 1) a contract between the Crown and an individual or group (guild, company, etc.) in which that individual or group is granted economic privileges and exploits, like a semi-exclusive right to ship and sell large quantities of enslaved people within a period of time; 2) a transaction in which international bankers allowed the crown to establish credit by issuing a short-term loan, transferring funds from the Spanish crown to another European entity, and changing the currency to verify business with another country

Azote – a form of corporal punishment or discipline done by whipping or lashing

Bachiller – during the sixteenth century, the first degree awarded by universities of arts, theology, canons, law, medicine, etc., after five years of study

Barragán – a man who cohabitated intimately with a woman without the sanctioning of official matrimony

Barragana – a woman who cohabitated intimately with a man without the sanctioning of official matrimony

Batel – small sailing vessel

Bozal – a black person with no familiarity with the Iberian cultures and languages, typically brought to La Española straight from Africa

Brasil – wood from a homonymous tree that was used to produce a dye

Cabildo – a city council or local legislative body

Cabildo y Construcción – an ecclesiastical institution that supervises the construction of a Cathedral

Cajas Reales – local royal treasury; office where monies and other assets of the monarchy or state headed by the king or queen are held, including all taxes collected

Calafate – a carpenter that patches or caulks holes in a ship hull

Calafatear – to close the seams of wood in a vessel’s hull with tar or another substance so that water cannot enter the hull

Cañafístola – (Cañafistula) a deciduous tree with yellow flowers and pods that contain a pulp used for medicinal purposes, especially as a laxative

Capellán – a priest with a set of specific functions or responsibilities within a local church

Capellanía – foundation established by a person who ascribes some of his or her property to pay in advance a priest’s salary for the long-term celebration of Mass or other forms of worship in a particular chapel

Capitán General – the supreme military authority of a colony or one of its districts or regions; sometimes they were also designated governors of their jurisdiction by the Crown

Cargo – 1) accusation, illegal behavior of which a person is accused; 2) section in an accounting record from colonial times where monies and items recieved or collected were listed

Carpintero de ingenios – carpenter who specialized in the building of a sugar mill’s premises

Carretero – a cartwright or wagoner, someone who drives or builds wagons or carts

Casa de la Contratación – the governing body within the Spanish empire that oversaw the trade between the Iberian metropolis and its colonies in the Americas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; it was first located in the city of Seville and was later moved to city of Cadiz

Casa de molienda – section of a sugar making estate or ingenio where the molienda or machine that milled or crushed the canes was located

Casabe – a thin flatbread made from cassava or yucca root; its origins trace back to the Arawak and Carib peoples

Cédula – document containing an order dispatched by any competent authority of the Spanish empire (monarch, viceroy, vicereine) in the exercise of their duties

Cimarrón – Maroon, a runaway enslaved person who hides in an isolated location and fights against slave owners or the authorities that support slavery

Cimarrones – maroons

Cirujano – surgeon

Congo – one of the African ethnicities that arrived in the Americas during colonial times

Congos de Villa Mella – group from the community of Villa Mella in the Dominican Republic that for generations has practiced and preserved songs and music of African origins

Consejo de Indias – advisory body that assisted the King of Spain with recommendations in all major decisions of government, also acting as final tribunal for disputes in Spain’s colonial territories

Contador – one of the main royal officials of the local royal treasury of a colonial city or town in charge of the accounting of all the monies and resources deposited at those offices

Corte – 1) court or tribunal; 2) the network of bureaucrats and servants working for the monarchs and in close physical proximity to them

Cuatro Calles – during the sixteenth century, the square-like space formed by the four streets surrounding Santo Domingo’s Cathedral

Cura – a priest

Daga – a dagger

Data – the section of the document of an accounting report during colonial times where expenses and payments were listed by the person responsible for them. Also mentioned were the receipts issued by those receiving the payments

Deán – oldest member of a church, ecclesiastical or secular community

Depositario – a religious official in charge of the chest or treasury of the church and its key and who kept a ledger of all transactions to and from the chest

Dobla – a type of coin

Doctor – doctor; title granted by the Catholic Church to some of its members most appreciated for their religious scholarship

Eje – an axle of a cart or machine; each of the rollers of a sugar mill’s machinery in between which the canes were crushed

Escribano – an official dedicated to notarial activity within certain administrative agencies or corporations

Escribano de la Audiencia – the notary of an Audiencia or local colonial tribune

Estrados – 1) a tribunal or judicial court; 2) plaftform or stage

Estupro – (Estrupo) rape or sexual assault, generally of a minor

Factor – one of the three royal officials working at the local royal treasury in a colonial Spanish city or town in charge of managing the monies and assets owned exclusively by the Crown

Fiscal – prosecutor; state or government lawyer who prosecutes crimes

Fornicación – sexual relations between two unmarried persons

Fornicar – to have sexual relations out of wedlock

Gente de a caballo – people or soldiers riding on horse

Governador – (gobernador) the highest authority designated by and representing the Crown in a province or region and entrusted with most judicial, administrative, and military duties

Grumete – a cabin boy, employed to serve a ship’s officers or passengers

Guanin – a type of low carat gold produced by the native Indians

Hato – a herd or the land occupied by a herd

Herido – wounded; injured

India – indigenous woman of the Americas

Indio – indigenous man of the Americas

Ingenio – 1) sugar estate or farm; 2) the premises within a sugar estate where sugar canes were milled, their juice boiled and the resulting thick syrup stored and crystalized into sugar

Jubón – a doublet, a men’s garment that cover the torso, sleeved or sleeveless

Lealdado – one of the types of cane sugar resulting from certain amount of boiling

Licencia – license; official permission given to a person to engage in certain transactions; official document that contains this permission

Licencia de esclavos – official document that certified a permission given to an individual to transport enslaved people to the colonies in the Americas

Maestre – the man in charge of the economic management of a merchant ship

Maestro de azúcar – the official or technician that directed the sugar making process in an ingenio or sugar estate

Mancebía – a brothel

Mandador – one of the overseers in a sugar estate during colonial times

Maravedí – unit of currency and type of coin of gold used in Spain during colonial times

Maravedíes – plural of Maravedí

Marinero – a sailor

Mascabado – (mascabada) one of the types of sugar resulting from simple boiling

Memorial – a writing in which a person or institution asks for a favor citing relevant merits or suggests certain steps to government authorities

Mercader – a merchant

Miel – honey

Nao – ship or vessel of certain size that was used to travel long distances

Notario – literate official or professional responsible for drafting public or private documents and attesting to their authenticity

Oidor – judge or magistrate of an Audiencia or colonial courtwithin the Spanish empire

O diz – phrase in a document that means “where it says”

Pataj, Pataje – small military vessel

Pan de la tierra – casabe or cassava considered the equivalent of Iberian wheat bread by Spanish colonists in their diet; literally, “bread of the land”

Peso de oro – coin made of gold

Petición – a request or solicitation for something, or the document conveying such a request

Poder – power of attorney

Preñada – pregnant

Presbítero – a type of priest in a church

Probanza – document containing testimonies or depositions to prove or support a claim in a colonial court or authority

Procurador – an attorney, someone who represents another person in court and makes decisions in the other person’s name

Provisión – see Real Provisión

Real Cédula – a type of government document containing a royal order

Real Provisión – a type of government document containing an order from an authority, frequently the King or a viceroy

Receptor – a judicial official assigned to hold a property or evidence in a judicial or government process

Registro de navío – an official document where all the crew, passengers, and cargo of a ship had to be listed

Relación – a written account or description of events

Remiñón, (pl. Remiñones) – one of the tools employed in boiling the sugar cane syrup in the sugar estates, resembling a large frying ladle and used to collect residues from the syrup

Rescatar – to barter; to exchange goods for other merchandise

Rescate – 1) bartering; the trade consisting of exchanging of goods without the use of currency; 2) money or items paid as a ransom or resulting from the plundering of a ship or community

Resgatar – see Rescatar

Resgate – see Rescate

Resoca – the third crop of a sugar cane plant after its second cutting

Rueda – 1) wheel of a vehicle; 2) water wheel moved by a current that propel the milling machine of an ingenio or sugar estate

Sarna – scabies, a contagious skin disease in which a person can experience itching and small raised red spots, caused by small itch mites

Señor de hato – lord or owner of a cattle ranch or estate

Señor de ingenio – lord or owner of an ingenio or sugar estate

Sisa – a type of tax or tribute on certain goods

Soca – the second crop a sugar cane plant after its first cutting

Subidor – a worker in a sugar estate, usually a slave in charge of carrying something from a low place to a higher place

Templador – a worker in a sugar estate, usually a slave, in charge of stirring the cane syrup until the right thickness was achieved

Teniente – lieutenant

Tesorero – 1) treasurer; 2) one of the three royal local officials in charge of overseeing the public finances of a province or region

Traslado – 1) transfer; 2) full copy of a document’s original version

Vaquero – cattle herder; cowboy

Viuda – widow

Viudo – widower

VM or Vuestra Majestad – Your Majesty

Ynsolidum (Insolidum) – Referring to two or more individuals associated in a business or transaction, done together, as one

Yerro (hierro) – Iron, steel

Yuca – a plant from the Americas with thick edible roots that, when grated, were used to make cassava

Yr – (Ir) to go

Zedula – (cédula) document or letter issued by a high authority like the King or Queen, usually ordering something

First Blacks In The Americas

The African Presence in The Dominican Republic

Glossary