matanza

matanza

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish matanza (“slaughter”), from matar (“to kill”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈtɑn.zə/
• (possibly obsolete) IPA^(key): /mɑˈtɑn.θɑ/[1]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

matanza (plural matanzas)

1. (chiefly US) A place where animals are slaughtered, for their hides, meat, tallow, etc, particularly in a Latin American context; a slaughterhouse.
   • 1826, John Miers, Travels in Chile and La Plata, page 310:

     Captain Hall has given a very excellent description of a matanza, the slaughtering place of a large hacienda, where cattle are killed in numbers with the view of making charqui : the fleshy parts alone are used, all the soft fat being carefully cut off […]

   • 1882, Felix Leopold Oswald, Zoological Sketches, page 179:

     […] a "tramp bitch," whose puppies had been captured in the neighborhood of the matanza. The beef-packery is guarded at night by a dozen ugly-looking mastiffs, and the tramp dogs generally give the establishment an extensive berth; but […] They used to sit in groups on the slope of a little hill near the matanza, appealing to the charity of the proprietor by yelping in chorus every now and then. There was so much waste stuff around the place that the captain concluded to grant their petition, and, by way of encouragement, sent them a car-load of beef-bones and "rippings," instructing the driver to scatter the scraps between the hill and the bone-pit.

   • 1997, Jessica Kuper, The Anthropologists' Cookbook, →ISBN, page 30:

     There is a great variety of products of the matanza. Here I describe three of the most widely appreciated ones: the dried ham, whose fat is choice tocino, the sausage called chorizo and the preserved loin and ribs of pork.

   • 2015, Courtney White, Two Percent Solutions for the Planet, page 45:

     Before the matanza could open for business (and stay in business), nine different regulating authorities had to sign off, including organic certification, transportation, the state Environment Department, weights and measures licensing, the Livestock Board, the USDA, and even Homeland Security.

2. (chiefly US) A slaughter, as of cattle or pigs (for their hides, meat, etc), of tuna, or of people; the act of butchering or slaughtering.
   • 1859, Carl Christian Wilhelm Sartorius, Mexico: Landscapes and popular sketches, page 190:

     The slaughtering period (matanza) lasts usually a month, and is a holiday for the shepherds, […] and fatten themselves and their families for a long time with sheep's heads and livers. The cooked meat, from which the fat has been extracted (carne de chito), lies there in complete mountains after a matanza : it is bought up by the dealers and conveyed to the villages, where the Indians buy it at the market for a mere trifle […]

   • 1903, Rosa Viola Winterburn, The Spanish in the Southwest, page 189:

     A matanza was another busy time for the Spaniards. This was the butchering or killing of the cattle for their hides.

   • 2011, David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 641:

     […] the Genoese established a colony at Tabarka on the coast of Tunisia between 1540 and 1742 specializing in coral-fishing, and where Tunisian fishermen have now joined Sicilian fleets in the matanza, the great seasonal slaughter of tuna.

   • 2015, Rudolfo Anaya, Jemez Spring, Open Road Media, →ISBN:

     […] but this wasn't a matanza with family and vecinos helping, this was Sonny lying in the dark forest […]

   • 2020, Marvin Guadalupe Romero, Mestizo the Old Man, →ISBN:

     Tomorrow he would help his grandpa and the neighbors in the matanza. It was early in the morning; Diego was already awake, anticipating the job that his grandpa had given him. Today is the matanza; Grandpa was having his usual […]

References

• matanza in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

1. Century Dictionary Supplement, volume XII, page 0776 (Masut to Matriotism)

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Asturian

Noun

matanza f (plural matances)

1. kill (act of killing)
2. killing
3. slaughter

Related terms

• matar

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Galician

Matanza dos Inocentes ("Massacre of the Innocents")

Etymology

Matar (“to kill”) +‎ -anza.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maˈtanθa̝/, (western) /maˈtansa̝/

Noun

matanza f (plural matanzas)

1. kill (act of killing)
2. massacre, slaughter
   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo (ed.), Crónica troiana, page 621:

     desque õme fuj formado, nũca ueu tal matança nẽ tal marteyro cõmo era sóbrelos de Troya

     since the man was made, he never saw such a slaughter nor such a martyrdom as that that was befalling the Trojans

Derived terms

• Matanza
• matanza do porco

References

• “matança” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “matança” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “matanza” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “matanza” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “matanza” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Spanish

Etymology

From matar (“to kill”) +‎ -anza.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /maˈtanθa/ [maˈt̪ãn̟.θa]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /maˈtansa/ [maˈt̪ãn.sa]
• (Spain) Rhymes: -anθa
• (Latin America) Rhymes: -ansa
• Syllabification: ma‧tan‧za

Noun

matanza f (plural matanzas)

1. kill (the act of killing)
2. massacre, slaughter (the killing of a large number of people)

   Synonym: masacre

3. slaughter (the killing of animals, generally for food)
4. (possibly obsolete) a place where animals are slaughtered
   • 1928, Acuerdos del extinguido Cabildo de Buenos Aires (Cabildo, Buenos Aires, Argentina), page 298:

     […] corra los pagos de Magdalena matanza y conchas y el otro desde Luxan en / adelante hasta el comfin de esta Jurisdicion y traigan por menor nomina de cant. de dho ganado que cada uno tubiere y el matadero ó matanza que cada uno apeteciere y raz. de el que no quisiere hazer […]

Descendants

• → English: matanza

Further reading

• “matanza”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014