artejo

Forms

artejo m (plural artejos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote artejo, arteio and arteyo.^[2][3] Covarrubias spells it artexo, a spelling the Diccionario de Autoridades rejects.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin articulus (“small joint, knuckle”), the popular descendant of the Latin word, whose learned doublet is artículo.^[6][7][8][1] Wiktionary starts from the syncopated form articlus, a form the OLD finds already in Caesar.^[1][9] The Latin word is a diminutive of artus (“joint, limb”) with -culus.^[9][1]

The same word is Portuguese artelho “ankle”, Galician artello, Catalan artell, Occitan artelh and Old French arteil, whose variant French orteil took the sense “toe”, probably under the influence of a Gaulish word.^[6][10][11] García de Diego explains Galician nortello “knuckle, ankle” as a cross with nodus (“knot”), which Corominas does not accept.^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250), in a measure: quanto el arteio del pulgar ouiere en luengo “as long as the joint of the thumb”.^[3] Corominas dates it to 1256, in the Partidas, for the outer part of the finger joints.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario prescribes a stone against pains of the arteios, and his Setenario explains Latin artículos as artejos.^[12][13] The Estoria de España praises a king whose arteios de las manos were very strong, a passage the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes.^[3][5] Nebrija defines it as the bone of the finger, and the Academy from 1843 on as the knuckle.^[14][15] Alemany (1917) adds the zoological sense, the joints of the legs and antennae of arthropods.^[16] Malaret (1946) records the Colombian sense “bundle”.^[17]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – arteio del pulgar in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[3]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario on pains in the joints.^[12]
• 1256 – the Partidas, Corominas's first record.^[7]
• c. 1270 – the Estoria de España on a king's strong knuckles.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija: artejo, the bone of the finger, Latin articulus.^[14]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives artexo from Latin articulus and artus.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology from Latin articulus.^[19]
• 1917 – Alemany records the zoological sense.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) knuckle (nudillo).^[8][1]
2. Each segment of a finger.^[20][6]
3. (zoology) Each of the jointed pieces of the legs and other appendages of arthropods: Cada pata del insecto tiene cinco artejos.^[8][21]
4. (Colombia) A bundle.^[17]

Related words

• artículo
• articular
• Latin articulus
• Portuguese artelho
• French orteil

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. artejo
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. artejo
4. ^ 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, 224
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 423
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 365
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. artículo
8. ^ 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. artejo
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. artejo
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ 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. artejo
13. ^ 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. 395
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 297
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 69
16. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 176
17. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 117
18. ^ 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. artejo
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 104
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. artejo
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. artejo