abril

Forms

abril m (plural abriles)^[1] Medieval texts also write abryl.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Aprīlis (“April”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin name was an adjective used as a noun with mēnsis (“month”), and April was the second month of the old Roman year.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese abril, Galician abril, Catalan abril, Occitan abriu, French avril, Italian aprile and Romanian prier.^[8][9][1] Some Rhaeto-Romance, French and Occitan forms point to a variant *aprilius, remade after Martius and the other month names.^[9][10][11]

De Vaan connects it with ab (“from, away”) as “the following (month)”, with the suffix taken from Quīntīlis and Sextīlis.^[7] Another explanation, which the DHLF attributes to Benveniste, takes it from Etruscan 𐌖𐌓𐌐𐌀 (apru), a shortening of Ancient Greek Ἀφροδίτη (Aphrodítē), so that it would be “Aphrodite's month”.^{[10][1][12][13]} The ancient link with aperiō (“to open”), because the earth opens in spring, is a folk etymology repeated by Alfonso X, Covarrubias and the Academy in 1884.^{[2][14][15][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1188.^[3][4] The Razón de amor (c. 1205, in a copy of 1250–1260) opens a scene with it: En el mes d'abril, depués yantar, estaua so un oliuar “in the month of April, after the midday meal, I was beneath an olive grove”.^[2][16][17]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Estoria de España explains that the month was named abril because the earth then begins to open and show what it holds.^[2][18] The month of flowers became a figure for youth and beauty: the Autoridades records estar hecho un abril “to look splendid”, and the plural abriles came to mean the years of a young person.^[19][5][20] The Academy's dictionary of 1770 recorded the proverbs abril, aguas mil “April, a thousand rains” and abril y mayo, llave de todo el año “April and May, the key to the whole year”, since the harvest depends on their rain.^[21]

From Spanish the word passed into Classical Nahuatl and into Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano and other languages of the Philippines as Abril.^[1]

Timeline

• 1188 – the first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1205 – the Razón de amor sets its scene en el mes d'abril.^[2][17]
• 1228 – a charter is dated en el mes de abril of the era 1266.^[17]
• c. 1270 – Alfonso X explains the name from abrirse “to open”.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin aprilis as the equivalent.^[22]
• 1554 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias repeats the Latin explanations, from aperire “to open” or from the name of Aphrodite.^[14]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative estar hecho un abril.^[19]
• 1770 – the Academy records the proverb abril, aguas mil.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. April, the fourth month of the year, with 30 days.^[5][1]
2. (figurative) Early youth: el abril de la vida.^[5]
3. (obsolete) Beauty, freshness, grace.^[5]
4. (in the plural) The years of a young person: Celebró sus dieciocho abriles con una fiesta.^[5][1][24]

Word family

• abrileño

Related words

• Latin Aprīlis
• Portuguese abril
• French avril

Usage notes

Abril is masculine, with the plural abriles.^[1][5] The proverb abril, aguas mil is still current.^[1][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. abril
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 22
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abril
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. abril
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 616
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. abril
12. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. abril
13. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. abril
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 50
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 6
16. ^ 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, p. 53
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. abril
18. ^ 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. abril
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 21
20. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1908–1914), Tesoro de la lengua castellana: origen y vida del lenguaje, 12 vols., Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. s.v. abril
21. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 19
22. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 282
23. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. abril
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abril