Do you know how the Serranía de Ronda got its name?

Paul Whitelock remains fascinated by language and its origins and the way it links together and develops. Lately he’s been wondering about the word Serranía. Here’s what he found…

Una Serranía is a mountainous area of land incorporating several towns and villages, eg la Serranía de Ronda, the region which this website, www.secretserrania.com , seeks to promote. La Serranía de Ronda comprises 23 municipios, from Ronda, the largest, to Atajate, the smallest.

Sierra, from the same Latin root serra, is a mountain range, eg Sierra de Grazalema, Sierra de las Nieves, Sierra Nevada (Granada). It’s also, of course, a saw, presumably because a saw’s cutting edge looks like a range of mountains. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Does anybody out there know? Please get in touch if you have any information, either by using the comments section at the bottom of this article, or on our Facebook page.

Back to sierra meaning saw. Examples include sierra eléctrica, sierra para metales, motosierra, sierra circular.

Sierra is also the name of an outdoor clothing shop, a TV station and a gaming outlet.

Serrano is the adjective pertaining to sierra, as in jamón serrano, pez serrano or indeed an inhabitant of a Serranía.

Un serranito is a Ronda tapa invented 30 years ago by Benito González, a former bar-owner in the Barrio San Francisco in Ronda. You can read more about this tapa at www.secretserrania.com/2020/10/history-of-a-ronda-tapa/

And if you haven’t tried one, I recommend you do so. I particularly like the serranitos at Bodega San Francisco and Café-Bar Berlanga, both in Ronda, Bar La Melli in Montejaque, Bar La Esquina in Estación de Benaoján and Bar El Chozo in Arriate. ¡Buen provecho!

See you again soon with more musings on the origins of words.