Decorating the body in the 18th century: a study of the clothing lexicon in Esteban de Terreros´´´ s Diccionario castellano

Abstract

This article studies the concept of corporal adornment in 18th century Spain, taking as its main source the lexicon referring to adornment to be found in Esteban de Terreros’s Diccionario castellano de ciencias y artes (Castilian dictionary of sciences and arts). From this corpus a selection is made of certain terms used to designate jewels, which with the help of CORDE are then analysed within the frame-work of historical pragmatics. Mention is made of the importance of tradition in the lexicographic information provided by the terms. Attention is also drawn to the uniqueness of some definitions, which occasionally are the only ones recorded in 18th century dictionaries.