Bencomo was the penultimate mencey or king of Taoro, a Guanche menceyato on the island of Tenerife. He fought in the First Battle of Acentejo, a victory for the Guanches against the invading Castilians, after having refused the terms of Alonso Fernández de Lugo. He may have perished on the heights of San Roque during the Battle of Aguere alongside his brother Tinguaro.
He had several children, including Adjona, Dácil, Bentor, Ruiman, Rosalva, Chachiñama, and Tiñate. Bentor succeeded him as mencey until his suicide in February 1495.
Name and Etymology
In addition to the forms Bencomo, Benchomo, and Benytomo, this personal name also appears in sources as Bentomo, Venitomo,3 Benchóm, Bencom, and Benitomo.4
As for its possible meaning, the philologist Ignacio Reyes proposes the interpretation "ambitious", derived from an early Insular Tamazight form we-n-ytum,5 suggesting that Benytomo is the original form of the Guanche leader's name. In contrast, philologist Juan Álvarez Delgado identifies Benchomo as the original form, deriving it from wen-chum (from the verb echchem, meaning "to be better" or "to be worth more"6), and proposes the meaning "he is the best" or "he is the greatest".7
The origin of the version Bencomo is thought to lie in either a misreading of the original Benchomo as a Latinized form (where ch becomes k/c, as commonly applied in Latin-Greek terms in medieval Spanish), or in typographical errors found in the texts of Antonio de Viana, which helped popularize this altered version of the name.8
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bencomo.References
Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. "10–11". La Conquista de Tenerife (1494–1496) (in Spanish). Aula de Cultura de Tenerife. pp. 252–256, 278–280. ISBN 84-500-7108-9. 84-500-7108-9 ↩
"La Conquista de Tenerife (1494–1496)". Archived from the original on 2017-08-05. Retrieved 2017-09-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20170805143132/http://mdc.ulpgc.es/cdm/singleitem/collection/MDC/id/44128/rec/1 ↩
Dominik Josef Wölfel (1965). Monumenta Linguae Canariae. The Monuments of the Canarian Language: A Study on the Prehistory and Early History of White Africa (in German). Graz: Akademische Druck. ↩
Juan Álvarez Delgado (1979). Guanche Anthroponyms (in Spanish). Mancomunidad de Cabildos, Cultural Plan and Canarian Museum. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-84-500-3178-2. 978-84-500-3178-2 ↩
Ignacio Reyes García (2011). Ínsuloamaziq Dictionary (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Ínsuloamaziq Cultural Fund. ISBN 978-84-615-0960-7. 978-84-615-0960-7 ↩
Juan Álvarez Delgado (1985). "The Division of the Island of Tenerife into Nine Kingdoms". Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos (in Spanish) (31). Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Casa de Colón Board: 114–116. ISSN 0570-4065. Retrieved 2025-05-31. https://revistas.grancanaria.com/index.php/aea/article/view/483/483 ↩
Juan Álvarez Delgado (1979). Guanche Anthroponyms (in Spanish). Mancomunidad de Cabildos, Cultural Plan and Canarian Museum. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-84-500-3178-2. 978-84-500-3178-2 ↩
Juan Álvarez Delgado (1985). "The Division of the Island of Tenerife into Nine Kingdoms". Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos (in Spanish) (31). Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Casa de Colón Board: 114–116. ISSN 0570-4065. Retrieved 2025-05-31. https://revistas.grancanaria.com/index.php/aea/article/view/483/483 ↩