*bausjian (so Diez and Calandrelli were not so far off), something that we collated in the Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (FEW), also available online, but with the meaning of ‘defraud’.

2.1.12. Returning to the Iberian space, Corominas points out that the word in question went from Italian to Catalan basa and Portuguese vasa, both pronounced with the sonorous sibilant, as in Italian. This datum will be essential for the possible confirmation of this hypothesis: if the sibilant was voiced, as well as a loan, a late exchange could have occurred. This is a phenomenon we detected in the first lexicographical tradition of the word in Spanish.

2.1.13. Anyway, the fact that the homonym basa, base is presented, in turn, as “foundation or support” and that the formal disposition of the card game would constitute a base (something on which Covarrubias had already commented) will produce the blend with baza. This, plus the fact that the word, undoubtedly a loan, had a voiced sibilant helped to vacillate its articulation and, by extension, its spelling. Thus, this sort of “error” seen by Román is nothing more than the product of its lexical context.

2.1.14. The last part of Román’s lexicographical article provides reflections that escape from the reach of this essay. In fact, these refer to aspects linked to critical sociolinguistics or glottopolitics:

Sin duda los SS. Académicos oyeron la loc. de boca de algún andaluz, y como la oyeron así la escribieron, y así salió ella, […]. Más acertados andamos los chilenos, que hemos inventado y usamos familiarmente la fr. fig. hacer baza en el sentido de ganar o prosperar en cualquier asunto o negocio. Ú. m. con negación. (1901-1908) (‘Without a doubt the Academics heard the locution from the mouth of some Andalusian, and as they heard it that is how they wrote it, and that is how it came out. We Chileans are much cleverer, as we have invented, and we use the figurative expression hacer baza with the sense of winning or prospering in any matter or business. Used more often with negation.’)

We cannot blame the Chilean priest for his discomfort around Andalusian Spanish: he did not have access to the etymological data that can unravel the tangle regarding this etymon.

3. Hypothetical etymology and its amendment

The amendment of etymons is a necessary, constant work within the field of etymology, due to the advances of the discipline or the discovery of new texts (especially in the cases of hypothetical etymons) or new study proposals. Indeed, this is a discipline that is constantly being remade, in pursuit of perfectibility. In the case of a non-etymological dictionary such as the Royal Spanish Academy’s Diccionario de la Lengua Española (DLE), the information that follows the headword also changes. At this point we must be careful and fair: the DLE is not a historical or etymological dictionary, but as it is a mixed work, it often includes the etymology or origin of the word. Many times this information may be rightly questioned or may be out of date; or it may not align with what is proposed in Corominas’ Etymological Dictionary, which as of today is the only Spanish language dictionary of this kind.

3.1. There is the case of montaña, a term derived from monte (“hill”), according to the 1947 edition of the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary. That is the information in the comment corresponding to the word’s etymology or its derivation. However, all editions of this dictionary (hereunder referred to as DRAE) from 1956 to the present –as well as Calandrelli