Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish Language

“MOSTACHO (Moustache): The beard of the upper lip.” —Sebastián de Covarrubias

Longlisted for the PEN Poetry in Trnaslation Award

Sebastián de Covarrubias’s famous Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish Language was first published in 1611, only two years before the author’s death. A contemporary of Cervantes, learned in Hebrew and Arabic languages, Covarrubias wrote his encyclopedic dictionary to explore the heterogeneous origins of words and their hidden connections to the moral, transcendent...