almanaque

Forms

almanaque m (plural almanaques)^[1] Older spellings include almanac, almanach, almanak, almanack and almenaque.^[2][3] Corriente records an Andalusian form armenaque.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic مناخ (manāḵ, “calendar”), with the Arabic article joined to the noun, as the DLE's romanised form shows.^[5][4][6][1] The Andalusian Arabic noun is recorded in this sense only in Ramon Martí's glossary of the 13th century and in Pedro de Alcalá's of 1505, where it also means a sundial.^[3] Corominas concludes that the word spread to the other European languages from Arabic Spain, then the centre of astronomy and astrology.^[3] Catalan almanac occurs in the 14th century, French almanach from 1391, Italian almanacco about 1345, and Medieval Latin almanach in Roger Bacon in 1267.^[3][7]

Its further origin is uncertain.^[3][6] The DLE and Corriente derive it from Arabic مناخ (munāḵ, “halt of a caravan”) of the classical language; the vowel /a/ for /u/ is the usual Andalusian change, which Martí records for this word.^[5][4][3] Corominas thinks it probably the same word: the signs of the Zodiac were seen as the stations where the sun halted on its yearly journey, so the word for a halting place came to mean a sign of the Zodiac, then a book of the stars' influences and a sundial.^[3][6] The DLE explains it by the Semitic custom of comparing the stars to camels on the march.^[5] Dozy had rejected the Arabic etymology for want of a link in meaning.^[3][8] Simonet traced it to a word read ⟨manacus⟩ in some manuscripts of Vitruvius, the circle of the months on a sundial, and Eguílaz followed him;^[9][3] Corominas rejects this as a corrupt reading.^[9][3] He also finds it hard to connect a Greek form cited by Eusebius from Porphyry for Egyptian astrological tables, which the Academy's 1884 dictionary gave as the source.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in three poems of the Cancionero de Baena, by Alfonso Álvarez de Villasandino and two poets who debated with him, in the first quarter of the 15th century.^[3][2] Villasandino says he understands nothing of astrology nin sus almanaques “nor its almanacs”: the word meant a treatise or table of astronomy.^[11][2] The CDH dates his poems 1379–1425, in a copy of about 1465.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word long kept a learned character, as Nebrija's spelling almanach and the Diccionario de Autoridades' almanak show.^[3][12] Nebrija glossed it with Latin ephemeris, and Covarrubias in 1611 defined almanacs as astrological tables, such as Abraham Zacuto's perpetual almanac.^[12][13] By the 19th century it meant the yearly calendar of days, months, feasts and phases of the moon, and the paper or booklet that contains it, with the phrase hacer almanaques “to make almanacs”.^[14][15] The DLE adds the sense of an annual publication on a subject.^[5] In Cuba and Peru almanaques are years of age, and in Nicaragua and Venezuela the word means a person's advanced age.^[16] In Gran Canaria an almanaque was a person given to exaggeration, and in Andalusia it is a colloquial name for the female sex.^[2][17][18]

Timeline

• 1379–1425 – first record, in Villasandino's poems in the Cancionero de Baena.^[11][3]
• 1428 – Enrique de Villena's Tratado de astrología has the form almanac.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives almanach de astrología with Latin ephemeris.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines almanacs as astrological tables.^[13]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters the word as almanak.^[19]
• 1736 – first record in the Americas, in Potosí.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Greek through Coptic.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Arabic.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. An almanac or calendar (calendario): a register of all the days of the year by months, with astronomical data and the religious and civil feasts.^[5][1][22]
2. An annual publication collecting facts, news or writings on a subject: un almanaque de cine.^[5]
3. (Cuba, Peru; in the plural, colloquial) Years of age.^[5][16]
4. (Nicaragua, Venezuela; colloquial) A person's age, especially an advanced one.^[16]

Related words

• calendario
• Catalan almanac
• French almanach

Usage notes

The DLE and the Academy's earlier editions give the phrase hacer almanaques as the same as hacer calendarios.^[5][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 184
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. almanaque
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 290
13. ^ 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. 1, 140
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
15. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
17. ^ Millares Cubas, Luis; Millares Cubas, Agustín (1922), Cómo hablan los canarios: refundición del Léxico de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas
18. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos