añil

Forms

añil m (plural añiles)^[1] Old forms include annir, anil, añir, anyr and añill;^[2] añir is the form of Juan del Encina and of Pedro de Alcalá's Arabic vocabulary (1505).^[3] Judeo-Spanish has añir.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic النيل (anníl), with a variant in /r/,^[4][2][5] the noun with the Arabic article assimilated to its ⟨n⟩.^[6][7] The Andalusian form goes back to Arabic نيل (nīl), from Middle Persian 𐭭𐭩𐭫 (nīl), ultimately from Sanskrit नील (nīla, “blue”).^[4][2][1]

Arabic had both a form with /l/, used in Egypt and elsewhere, and one with /r/, which the Hispano-Arabic lexicographers give;^[2][8] Corominas argues that añir and Portuguese anil still come from the form with /l/, since the other would rather have given ⟨añer⟩.^[9] The /l/ is also the Persian form, from which Arabic took the word, though Sanskrit would suit the meaning well, India being the land of drugs.^[9]

The same word is Galician anil, Catalan anyil and French anil.^[2][8] From the Peninsula came the old Italian forms anile, from Portuguese, and agnir, from Spanish, in the 16th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Spanish Moamín (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century), a treatise on hunting birds, prescribes it for sores in a bird's mouth: que tomen del annil peso de medio dinero de plata “let them take of indigo the weight of half a silver penny”.^[10][11] Corominas's first records are the customs tariffs of the 13th century (anil) and the Gran conquista de Ultramar of about 1300 (añir).^[9][12] A Latin text, the Fuero de Cuenca of about 1189, already lists annir among taxed goods.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages añil was the imported blue dye: the household accounts of Sancho IV (before 1295) buy it by the pound, and the ordinances on cloth of 1495 regulate its use by dyers.^[3][12] Juan del Encina sings of a skirt dyed añir torquesada, turquoise blue.^[10] The modern form añil is Laguna's (1555).^[9]

In the Americas indigo became a major crop: it is recorded in Yucatán in 1565, and Autoridades quotes a price for the añil de Guatemala in 1680.^[13][14] Autoridades (1726) defines it as the colour blue and, in painting, as indigo; the Academy described the plant from 1817 and the dye paste from 1843.^[14][15][16] Vox notes that, like many colour terms, the word passed from the plant and its paste to the colour itself, now the sixth colour of the spectrum.^[17][4] In Chile sacarle a uno el añil meant “to give someone a thrashing”, from the beating of the plant to extract the dye.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1189 – annir in the Latin Fuero de Cuenca.^[3]
• 1250 – the Moamín uses annil in a remedy for hunting birds.^[10][11]
• c. 1295 – the customs tariffs exempt anil from toll; the accounts of Sancho IV list añil.^[3][12]
• 1481–1496 – Juan del Encina's añir torquesada.^[10]
• 1555 – the form añil in Laguna.^[9]
• 1565 – first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[13]
• 1680 – a price decree fixes the cost of the añil de Guatemala.^[14]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines the colour and the pigment.^[14]
• 1901 – the derivative anilina, through French.^[9][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. indigo, the plant: a perennial shrub of the pea family with compound leaves, reddish flowers in spikes and curved pods.^[4][1]
2. The dark blue paste with a coppery sheen obtained from its stems and leaves.^[4][1]
3. The dye or pigment used to produce this colour.^[4]
4. The colour indigo, the sixth in the spectrum: Pintaron la puerta de añil.^[4][17]

Adjective

1. Indigo-coloured: una camisa añil.^[4][17]

Word family

• añilar
• añilería

Related words

• anilina
• lila
• nenúfar

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. añil
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. añil
5. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. añil
8. ^ a b Eguílaz y Yanguas, Leopoldo de (1886), Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, portuguesas, valencianas y bascongadas) de origen oriental, Granada: La Lealtad
9. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 288
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. añil
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. añil
12. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
17. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
18. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José