ala

Forms

ala f (plural alas)^[1] A form alla occurs only in the Libro de los gatos (c. 1400).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin āla (“wing; armpit, shoulder”), unchanged in Old Spanish ala.^[3][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Catalan ala, Occitan ala, Italian ala and French aile.^[6][1][7] In Galician-Portuguese the ⟨l⟩ between vowels was lost, giving aa, plural aas, soon contracted to á, plural ás.^[3] Corominas explains that these short forms were easily confused with asa (“handle”) and az (“line, wing of an army”), so that Portuguese asa became the classical Portuguese word, while Galician aza alternates with asa and aa.^[3][6] The Latin and Castilian form was later brought back into both languages, as ala in some special senses and ala in general use.^[3]

The Latin word first meant the joint of the arm or wing with the body, hence also “armpit, shoulder”.^[8][7][9] It goes back to *axla, from Proto-Indo-European *ag-s-lā, and is related to axis (“axle”); the same formation is Old English eaxl (“shoulder”) and Old High German ahsala.^[10][7][11] Lewis and Short take the word as contracted from axilla (“armpit”), after Cicero's remark that the name Axilla became Ala by dropping the rougher letter; the Academy gave the same explanation from 1884.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), a biblical text, where God says alcé a vos sobre alas de aguyla, “I lifted you up on eagles' wings”, and a beast like a leopard has four wings.^[14][2][15] Berceo, a little later, uses it figuratively: las alas de vertudes, “the wings of virtues”, will carry us to heaven.^[16][17]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the word for the wings of birds and also for the eaves of a roof.^[18] Nebrija's Latin dictionary (1492) also has the military sense, a battle line drawn up en ala, and the first record from the Americas, of 1515, describes troops advancing in a line.^[19][20] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the brim of a hat, by comparison with the eaves of a roof, and noted that the eaves were by then usually called alero.^[21] The Academy's 1817 edition has the wing of a building, the flank of an army, a small extra sail and the brim of a hat.^[22] The modern senses include the wing of an aircraft, a faction of a party and, in football, a wing or winger.^[5][23][1]

Figurative phrases are old: in Don Quijote it seems that wings have grown on Rocinante, and fear lends wings.^[24] The plural alas “boldness, licence” appears in dar alas “to encourage” and cortar or quebrar las alas “to discourage”, recorded by the Academy in 1869; in the Americas tomar alas “to grow bold” is found from 1528.^[25][20] In parts of Latin America, especially in the country, ala means the armpit, and in Nicaragua and Cuba the arm.^[26] In Cuba it was also a figure of the contradance.^[27][28]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has alas of an eagle.^[14][2]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo speaks of the “wings of virtues”.^[16][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the word for the wings of doves.^[18]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for the eaves of a roof.^[18]
• 1386 – López de Ayala's book of hawking describes a bird's wing that has lost its feathers.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary: ala con que buela el ave, Latin ala.^[29]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, of troops in a line.^[20]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the brim of a hat and the eaves of a roof.^[21]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the wing of a building, the flank of an army and a small sail.^[22]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives the word from Latin ala, taken as a contraction of axilla.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. wing: each of the paired limbs or organs with which birds, insects and some other animals fly: La paloma movía las alas.^[5][1]
2. The wing of an aircraft, which holds it up in flight.^[5][1]
3. A wing of a building; a side part of any space or structure: el ala izquierda del museo.^[5]
4. A faction or tendency within a party, organization or assembly.^[5]
5. (military) The flank of an army or formation; a row or line.^[5][1]
6. (sports) The wing of the field;^[23][1] (masculine or feminine) a winger.^[23][1]
7. The brim of a hat.^[5][1]
8. The eaves of a roof (alero).^[5]
9. Each side of the nose (aleta).^[5]
10. (botany) Each of the side petals of a pea-like flower.^[5]
11. (nautical) A small extra sail set in fair weather.^[5]
12. (in the plural, figurative) Boldness, freedom: dar alas “to encourage”.^[28][25]
13. (Latin America, rural) The armpit.^[26]

Word family

• alado
• alero
• aleta
• aletear
• alón
• aluda
• desalar
• alar
• aludo
• alicaído

Related words

• axila
• Latin ala

Usage notes

Ala is also the name of the plant elecampane (hierba del ala), first recorded by Nebrija;^[3][4][5] Corominas treats it as a separate word, from Late Latin ala, Classical alum, which Pliny gives as a word of Gaul.^[3][4][5] The interjection ala (also hala), used to urge someone on, is found in the Cid: ala, Per Vermudoz, el mio sobrino caro;^[17][30][31] Autoridades also records it as a cry of surprise.^[17][30][31] In nonstandard writing ala also stands for a la “to the”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ala
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 95
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ala
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. ala
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ala
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. ala
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 31
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. ala
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 39
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ala
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ala
16. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. ala
17. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 21
18. ^ a b c 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. ala
19. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. ala
20. ^ a b c 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. ala
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. ala
22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 34
23. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ala
24. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. s.v. ala
25. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 26
26. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. ala
27. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 11
28. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 67
29. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 288
30. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. s.v. ala
31. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 151