alumbre

Forms

alumbre m (plural alumbres)^[1] Old Spanish wrote alunbre beside alumbre.^[2][3] Alum occurs in the 13th, 15th and 17th centuries and in Aragonese and Murcian, alume in the 14th century, and alún in the 17th and 18th centuries and in Álava.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin alūminem (“alum”), the accusative of the Latin word.^[4][5][1] The same word is Italian allume, French alun, Catalan alum and the Portuguese pedra hume.^[6][7] Corominas takes the variants ⟨alum⟩, ⟨alume⟩ and ⟨alún⟩ as foreign forms, surely Catalan, because alum reached Castile through Barcelona.^[4][8] It was also called piedra de lumbre (“stone of fire”), by folk etymology from lumbre.^[4]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Italic *alu- (“bitter substance”), the root of alūta (“soft leather”), and compares Ancient Greek ἀλύδοιμον (alúdoimon, “bitter”), Lithuanian alùs (“beer”) and Proto-Germanic *aluþ (“beer”).^[9] He leaves open whether the initial vowel was long.^[9] The OLD compares English ale too.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Two works of about 1250 have the word.^[11][3] The falconry treatise Moamín, in a copy of the later 13th century, prescribes alumbre blanco with myrrh as a remedy.^[11] Alfonso X's Lapidario names la piedra a que dizen en aráuigo axep et en latín alumbre.^[3] It explains the name by saying that everything boiled with it is brightened (se alumbran et esclarecen).^[12] The DCECH's first record is the Primera crónica general, about 1295.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's history of Spain lists alumbre among the minerals of the country, with azure, red ochre and chalk.^[13][11] Corominas, citing Américo Castro, notes that Castile imported alum through Barcelona, while the French imported it from Spain.^[4] Nebrija explained Latin alūmen in 1492 as el alumbre, piedra conocida.^[3] Covarrubias in 1611 repeats Calepino's derivation from Latin lumen “light”, because alum gives brightness to dyes.^[14] He also gives Pineda's, from a- and lumen, because wood soaked in alum would not burn.^[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades in 1726 defined it as a mineral stone of astringent salt, whitish, clear and sour, and listed alumbre catino, made from the ash of the saltwort, and alumbre de pluma, the fibrous stone also called asbestos.^[15] The Academy described it chemically in 1843, as a salt of sulphuric acid and alumina used as a mordant in dyeing.^[16] In 1899 it called it a double sulphate of alumina and potash, used to clear muddy water and as a caustic.^[17] A stone of alum was once rubbed on the face after shaving.^[18] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1512, in Puerto Rico.^[19]

Timeline

• 1250 – the Moamín and Alfonso X's Lapidario use alumbre.^[11][3]
• c. 1270 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España lists it among the minerals of Spain.^[11]
• c. 1295 – the DCECH's first record, the Primera crónica general.^[4]
• 1342–1350 – the Libro de la montería has alumbre de piedra.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin alumen with it.^[3]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin lumen.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy gives a chemical definition.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. alum: a double sulphate of alumina and potassium found in some rocks and soils, used to clear muddy water, as a mordant in dyeing and as an astringent in medicine.^[5][1][18]
2. alumbre de pluma: iron alum that crystallises in threads like the barbs of a feather.^[5]
3. (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic; feminine in Puerto Rico) A small plant, Peperomia pellucida, whose leaves are used for an astringent tea.^[20][21][22]

Word family

• alumbrera
• alumbroso

Related words

• alúmina
• aluminio
• Latin alūmen
• Catalan alum
• French alun

Usage notes

Alumbre is also a form of the verb alumbrar “to light”, and many early hits in the corpus are that verb.^[11] Wiktionary lists a noun alumbre “light, glow” beside it, related to that verb.^[1] The DCECH lists a separate verb alumbrar “to treat with alum” among the derivatives of this word.^[4] An Old Spanish adverb alumbre “elsewhere”, in the Fuero Juzgo, comes from Latin aliubi through alubre.^[13][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. alumbre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. alumbre
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 224
5. ^ a b c 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. alumbre
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 389
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 469
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 244
9. ^ 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, p. s.v. alūmen
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. alūmen
11. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alumbre
12. ^ 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. alumbre
13. ^ a b 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. 270
14. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 158
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 251
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 40
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 56
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alumbre
19. ^ 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, p. s.v. alumbre
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. alumbre
21. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. alumbre
22. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. alumbre 1
23. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 61