esculca

Galician

Etymology 1

From local Late Latin sculca (“watchtower”), from Proto-Germanic. Cognate of English skulk (“to hide”) and of Norwegian Nynorsk skulke (“to play truant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /esˈkulka̝/

Noun

esculca f (plural esculcas)

1. inquiry
   • 1853, Camilo Álvarez de Castro, [Carta a Rosalía de Castro]:

     vendo aí tantos homes de testa, capaces d'abranguer moito e ben, que puderan facer esculcas e recoller as cantigas i os contos de cada eido

     seeing so many intelligent, capable men who could undertake a lot ably, who could make enquiries and recollect the songs and the tales of every place [of Galicia]

2. report
   • 1457, Fernando Tato, editor, Libro de Notas de Álvaro Perez, page 188:

     e achara a Johán Rramallo [...] que leuaua hũu ljmoeyro çebtý que avía arrĩcado da orta [...] e que Afonso Rrodriges Vimyeiro dera a esculca del a seu dono

     and that he found Xoán Ramallo [...] who took away a lemon tree that he had pulled out from the garden [...] and that Afonso Rodríguez Vimieiro has given a report about him to its proprietor

3. (archaic) spy
   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, page 235:

     Et coydou que era esculca que vĩjña esculcar sua terra, ca Peleus ben sabía que entre elles et troyãos auj́a grã desamor.

     And he thought that he was a spy which has come to investigate their country, because Peleus knew well that in between them and the Trojans there was a large enmity

Derived terms

• Esculca
• esculcar

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “esculca”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “esculc”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “esculca”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “esculca”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “esculca”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Etymology 2

Verb

esculca

1. inflection of esculcar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /esˈkulka/ [esˈkul.ka]
• Rhymes: -ulka
• Syllabification: es‧cul‧ca

Etymology 1

Deverbal from esculcar.

Noun

esculca f (plural esculcas)

1. (obsolete) spy

Etymology 2

Verb

esculca

1. inflection of esculcar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “esculca”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10