arma

Forms

arma f (plural armas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish arma, inherited from Late Latin arma (“weapon”), the classical neuter plural Latin arma (“arms, weapons”) taken as a feminine singular because of its ending in -a.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas notes that Late Latin already declined the word as a feminine singular by about 570, in the Antonine Itinerary.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese arma, Galician arma, Asturian arma, Catalan arma, Occitan arma, French arme, Italian arma, Sardinian arma and Romanian armă.^[6][7][8] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance feminine noun with the sense “weapon” behind all of them.^[8]

De Vaan traces the Latin word to Proto-Italic *armo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)r-mo- (“fitting”), from the root “to join” that is also behind Ancient Greek ἀραρίσκω (ararískō, “to fit together”) and ἅρμα (hárma, “chariot”); the sense went from “what is fitted together” to “tools” and then to “weapons”.^[9][1] The DHLF and Bénaben give an older view, which derives the Latin word from armus (“upper arm, shoulder”), so that arms were first what extends the arm in a fight.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) is the first record: the Cid's enemies are to take „tres mill moros … con armas de lidiar” “three thousand Moors with weapons of war”.^[12][3] In the Cid the plural also means a knight's armour, and armas de fuste are the wooden arms, the shield and the lance.^[13] Menéndez Pidal notes that the word first meant a defensive arm.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the plural for the horns of a ram (in the Libro de buen amor) and for an ambush.^[13][15] Alfonso X's prose uses the word for weapons of every kind and, figuratively, for the means of reaching an end: the sign of the cross was the emperor Constantine's first “arm”.^[16] The cry ¡al arma!, which came from Italian, gave alarma (1548).^[3][7][6]

The Diccionario de Autoridades divided arms into offensive and defensive, and recorded the plural for the troops of a state.^[17] The Academy's later editions added arma de fuego and arma falsa (a feigned attack) in 1770, arma blanca in 1817 and the heraldic arms in 1869.^[18][19][20] Salvá recorded in 1846 the sense “branch of the army”, as in the question which arm someone served in.^[21] In several Latin American countries the word is a euphemism for the penis, and in Ecuador also for the vulva.^[22]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has armas de lidiar and armas de fuste.^[12][13]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of iron made into weapons of many kinds.^[16]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary renders Latin arma as “las armas”.^[23]
• 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Cartagena, refers to the royal arms.^[24]
• 1548 – the derivative alarma, from the cry ¡al arma!.^[3]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines offensive and defensive arms and the plural “troops”.^[17]
• 1770 – the Academy records arma de fuego and the cry ¡arma, arma!.^[18]
• 1817 – arma blanca appears in the Academy's dictionary.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy explains the word as a Latin neuter plural taken as a feminine singular.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A weapon: an instrument, means or machine for attacking or defending oneself: Encontraron un arma bajo el asiento.^[4][1]
2. An animal's natural means of attack or defence, such as horns or claws.^[4][25]
3. (figurative) A means of achieving something: La paciencia es su mejor arma.^[4][25]
4. (military) Each of the combat branches of an army, such as the infantry, cavalry or artillery: Sirvió diez años en el arma de ingenieros.^[4]
5. (rare) A sudden attack;^[25] (obsolete) an alarm.^[4]
6. (in the plural) The troops or armies of a state.^[4]
7. (in the plural) The military profession: Su abuelo siguió la carrera de las armas.^[4][25]
8. (in the plural, heraldry) The bearings of a shield; a coat of arms.^[4]
9. (in the plural) The parts with which some instruments, such as a saw or a compass, are fitted.^[4]
10. (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay; euphemistic) The penis.^[22]

Word family

• armar
• armada
• armadijo
• armadillo
• armador
• armadura
• armamento
• armazón
• armero
• armería
• desarmar
• rearmar

Related words

• alarma
• armario
• inerme
• armisticio
• Latin arma

Usage notes

In Chile de armas tomar “bold, resolute” is said of women as well as men, and the phrase estar en arma “to be restless” is often altered to estar en alma.^[26] Henríquez Ureña cites the Andalusian confusion of /l/ and /r/ that makes arma and alma sound alike.^[27]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 337
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arma
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. arma
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 89
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 698
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. arma
8. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. arme
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. arma
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. arma
13. ^ 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. 49
14. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. arma
15. ^ 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. 376
16. ^ 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. arma
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 390
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 318
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 85
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 68
21. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 97
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. arma
23. ^ 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. arma
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. arma
25. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arma
26. ^ 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. 90
27. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 99