The history of perulero: A polysemous Spanish word and its endogenous and exogenous textual usage from the 16th century to the 19th century

The aim of this paper is to review the meanings of perulero from the 16th century to the first half of the 19th century and to analyse its textual usage in different regions and time periods. With the results obtained, and considering the influence that texts from some Spanish-speaking regions may have had on those from less influential communities, this paper also attempts to discuss the possibility of an early colonial pluricentric panorama for the Spanish language. Therefore, by analysing the presence, use and meanings of perulero in texts available at the Corpus Diacrónico del Español (the Diachronic Corpus of Spanish), this paper will attempt to search for tendencies in the appearance of this word throughout the former Spanish Empire, with the purpose of discussing the existence of more than a single centre of textual influence, in the context of a linguistically pluricentric space.