The Bullroarer Atlas

VERGARA1921-001 - lexical attestation

Burgos–Santander rutadera

Spain - Provinces of Burgos and Santander - Cantabria - Europe - Iberia

Function not recorded

Haddon's full plate of bullroarers from the British Islands.
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rutadera

rutadera: from rutar, defined on the same page as 'zumbar, hacer ruido sordo; hablar entre dientes, murmurar' — to buzz, to make a dull noise, to mutter.

A dictionary is sometimes all that survives of an instrument. Compiling the village speech of Burgos and Santander in 1921, Gabriel María Vergara Martín set down rutadera: a little board of wood which, tied to a cord and made to spin fast, makes a noise. The next entry on the page gives the verb it comes from — rutar, to buzz, to make a dull sound, to talk between the teeth, to grumble. The board is named after a mutter.

Rutadera, f. — Tablita de madera que, atada a una cuerda y haciéndola girar rápidamente, produce ruido.

Gabriel María Vergara Martín, Materiales para un vocabulario de palabras usadas en algunos pueblos de las provincias de Burgos y Santander (1921), p. 95
Object
Small wooden board tied to a cord and rapidly rotated.
Function
Whirled rapidly to make noise.
Source
Vergara Martín 1921 exact definition; Devoto 1972 corroborates the class
Source location
p. 95
Source confidence
low Broad two-province anchor; no town supplied.

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