araña

Forms

araña f (plural arañas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish aranna, inherited from Latin arānea (“spider's web; spider”).^[2][3][4][1] In Latin the animal was first arāneus, and the feminine meant the web; it is used for the spider from Catullus on.^[5][6] Isidore already used the Latin word for a fish, the weever.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese aranha, Asturian araña, Aragonese araina, Catalan aranya, Occitan aranha, Old French araigne and Italian ragna.^[7][8] French araignée, a derivative that first meant the web, now names the animal.^[9] roña “mange” may be the same Latin word in its Late Latin sense “scab”, as Coromines holds;^[10][8][11] García de Diego derives it instead from Latin aerūgō (“rust”).^[10][8][11]

The Latin word has a close cognate in Ancient Greek ἀράχνη (arákhnē, “spider”).^[5][1] De Vaan considers two explanations: a borrowing from Greek, with the Greek /kʰn/ taken as /gn/ and the velar later lost, or two independent borrowings from a common source.^[5] The learned arácnido is formed from the Greek word.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest records are of about 1250: the Poridat de las poridades says of a man es triste como aranna “he is as sad as a spider”, and the Moamín prescribes la tela de la aranna “the spider's web” in a remedy for cracks.^[12] Alfonso X's Lapidario names arannas among creatures with a mild poison.^[13] The DCECH's first records are later, in Juan Manuel and Juan Ruiz.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Juan Ruiz says of a man whom his relatives shun that they flee from him como si fues' araña “as if he were a spider”.^[14] Covarrubias (1611) compares unequal laws to a spider's web, which holds the flies and lets bigger creatures break through, and also records the fish called araña.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds two figurative senses: a hard-working man who gathers from everywhere for his household, and a person who covets and takes what belongs to others.^[16]

In 1770 the Academy recorded the chandelier, a candleholder without a foot hung from the ceiling, named for the likeness of its arms to a spider.^[17][18] By 1817 it had added a nautical sense, a block of wood with many holes for small lines.^[19] In Mexico araña was slang for a prostitute, and in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay it named a small, light two-wheeled carriage.^[20][21][22]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – aranna in the Poridat de las poridades and the Moamín.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[13]
• 1268 – the derivative araniego appears in the Cortes.^[2]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor.^[23][2]
• 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of a poisonous spider.^[24]
• 1611 – Covarrubias compares the law to a spider's web.^[15]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative senses.^[16]
• 1770 – the Academy records the chandelier.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. spider: an arachnid (arácnido) with four pairs of legs and organs that spin silk for its web.^[4][1]
2. (botany) The plant arañuela.^[4]
3. (Antilles) A grass with straight, hairless stems and flowers in thin spikes.^[4]
4. A chandelier, a ceiling lamp with several arms hung with pieces of glass: En el comedor colgaba una araña de bronce.^[4][1]
5. A net for catching birds.^[4]
6. A prostitute.^[4][20]
7. (nautical) A set of thin lines that spread out from one point, sometimes passing through the holes of a batten.^[4]
8. (Murcia, vulgar) A scramble, a free-for-all to grab things thrown.^[4]
9. (Argentina, Uruguay, rare) A small, light carriage.^[4][22]
10. (Canary Islands) The weever, a fish with venomous spines.^[25][26]

Word family

• araniego
• arañero
• telaraña
• arañuela
• arañuelo

Related words

• arácnido
• musaraña
• arañar
• roña
• Latin arānea

Usage notes

Tela de araña is a spider's web;^[4][1] araña de mar names several spider crabs and araña de agua the water spider.^[4][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 f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 311
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. araña
4. ^ 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. araña
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. arānea
8. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 648
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. araignée
10. ^ a b 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. 7, 453
11. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 53
12. ^ 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. araña
13. ^ a b 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. araña
14. ^ 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. 364
15. ^ 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. 201
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. araña
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 303
18. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. araña
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 81
20. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. araña
21. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 84
22. ^ 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. araña
23. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 46
24. ^ 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. araña
25. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. araña
26. ^ 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. araña