anillo

Forms

anillo m (plural anillos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote aniello, aneyllo, anello, anieillo, anniello, anyello and anyllo;^[2] añillo and anío also occur.^[2] Old Castilian and Old Aragonese also had a feminine aniella.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ānellus (“little ring”), and Old Spanish had aniello.^[4][5][6][1] Corominas and the BDELC describe the Latin word as a diminutive of ānulus (“ring”); the OLD and de Vaan derive both from ānus (“ring, link”).^[4][5][7][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese anel, Asturian aniellu, Aragonese aniello, Catalan anell, French anneau, Italian anello, Romanian inel and Ladino aniyo.^[9][1][10] The inherited Portuguese form was ãelo, which became elo (“link of a chain”).^[11][12][4] The form with ⟨n⟩ came through Occitan.^[13][14] In Galicia, too, Corominas says that the old word gave way to a form of Occitan type, Galician anel.^[4]

This noun meant a ring or link in Plautus and Varro and later the anus; it goes back to Proto-Italic *āno- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eh₂no- (“ring”), with cognates in Old Irish and Armenian.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TDHLE's first quotation is from the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes, dated before 1134: Qui tiene aneyllo o otra cosa en peynnos “whoever holds a ring or another thing in pledge”.^[2] The CDH's first hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, of about 1200 in a 13th-century copy: Judah gives a woman his anyello as a pledge, his belt and his staff.^[15] The first in a text without a later copy are the Fueros de Aragón of 1247, which deal with an aniello de oro con piedra preciosa “a gold ring with a precious stone” held in pledge.^[15] Berceo uses the word for the ring of a fetter.^[16][15]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used aniello for a link of a chain and for a finger ring.^[16] In Alfonso X's Lapidario gems are set en aniellos.^[17] Nebrija gave Latin anellus for anillo pequeño.^[18] Covarrubias linked it with año, since the year is pictured as a circle.^[19]

Autoridades defined it as a small circle of metal or other material, also called sortija, worn on the fingers, and added the geometric annulus and the collarino of a column.^[20] The Academy recorded the anillo del Pescador, the ring that seals papal briefs, in 1817, and the germanía plural anillos “fetters” in 1869.^[21][22] Its 1884 edition first gave the etymology and the bands of the bodies of worms and insects.^[23] The DLE now also has the bullring, the ring of planets, the rings of a tree trunk and the mathematical ring.^[6]

In Mexico, Cuba, Argentina and Uruguay anillo can mean an intrauterine contraceptive; in Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic it is the paper band of a cigar.^[24][25]

Timeline

• before 1134 – the TDHLE's first quotation, aneyllo in the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes.^[2]
• c. 1200 – anyello in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[15]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's first record, in Berceo.^[4][5]
• 1247 – aniello in the Fueros de Aragón.^[15]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has gems set en aniellos.^[15]
• c. 1437 – the form añillos.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's anillo pequeño, anellus.^[18]
• 1513 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[26]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the finger ring and the architectural sense.^[20]
• 1865 – the learned derivative anélido.^[5]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology for the first time.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small hoop or ring.^[6][1]
2. A ring worn on a finger, plain or worked, with or without stones: anillo de boda.^[6][1]
3. A sortija: a curl of hair.^[6]
4. The ring of a bullring.^[6]
5. A ring placed on the leg of a bird; an anilla.^[6]
6. (anatomy) A ring-shaped structure.^[6]
7. (architecture) A moulding round a column; also the round or oval cornice on which a dome rests.^[6]
8. (astronomy) A ring of particles or bodies round a planet.^[6]
9. (botany) Each of the woody rings of a tree trunk.^[6]
10. (mathematics) A ring: a structure with two operations, one like addition and one like multiplication.^[6][1]
11. (Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay) An intrauterine contraceptive.^[24]

Word family

• anilla
• anillar

Related words

• ano
• anular
• Latin ānellus
• Portuguese elo

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists the set phrases como anillo al dedo, caérsele los anillos and anillo de compromiso.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. anillo
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. anellus
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 274
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. anillo
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. anillo
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. aniellu
11. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1279
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. elo
13. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 246
14. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. anel
15. ^ 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. anillo
16. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 37
17. ^ 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. anillo
18. ^ 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. 310
19. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 180
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 297
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 66
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 52
23. ^ 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. 74
24. ^ 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. anillo
25. ^ 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. anillo
26. ^ 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. anillo