avellana

Forms

avellana f (plural avellanas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin abellāna (“hazelnut”), the adjective of Abella, a town of Campania where hazelnuts were plentiful, used with or without nux (“nut”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is found from Cato on, sometimes spelt with ⟨v⟩, and Isidore of Seville already gave its true origin; a variant abellīna gave Old Spanish avellina, used in rhyme in the Cancionero de Baena.^[2]

As the name of the fruit the word won out only in Ibero-Romance, most of the Occitan area, Romanian and some dialects of northern Italy and Sardinia.^[2] The Italian cognate, avellana, names only one variety.^[2] The same Latin word is Portuguese avelã, Galician abelá, Asturian ablana, Catalan avellana, Old Occitan avelana, Romanian alună and Sardinian oddana.^[5][6][1] The French word aveline comes from Occitan.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250, in an early-15th-century copy) uses it as a measure of worthlessness: que tod'esto non preçio quanto tres avellanas “for I value all this no more than three hazelnuts”.^[8][2][3]

Semantic evolution

In 13th-century prose the nut served as a measure of size and colour: the Moamín prescribes a hazelnut's worth of sugar, and Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a stone's colour to it.^[8][9] Covarrubias (1611) explained the Latin name and recorded others, such as nux pontica.^[10] Avellana de la India or avellana índica names the myrobalan, already in Percyvall's dictionary of 1591.^[11][4] In the 20th century the word was also used for a grade of coal from the Puertollano basin, cut to the size of a hazelnut.^[4][12] In Peru it names a kind of firework, and in Puerto Rico it means a nut in general.^[13] As an invariable adjective it describes hazel eyes.^[1]

Timeline

• 1073 – the derivative avellano “hazel tree” is recorded, earlier than the noun itself.^[2][3]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses avellanas.^[8][2]
• 1250 – the Moamín uses it as a measure.^[8]
• c. 1295 – the Cantabrian customs tariffs list auellanas among taxed goods.^[8]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1591 – Percyvall records avellana de la India.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the name from the town of Abella.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from the town of Avella or Abella.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. hazelnut, the fruit of the hazel: Compré un paquete de avellanas tostadas.^[4][1]
2. (mining) Coal from the Puertollano basin, washed and graded to a set size.^[4][12]
3. avellana de la India, avellana índica: the myrobalan.^[4]
4. (Peru) A kind of firework.^[13]
5. (Puerto Rico) A nut.^[13]

Adjective

1. (invariable) hazel, of eye colour.^[1]

Word family

• avellano
• avellaneda

Related words

• Latin abellāna
• Portuguese avelã
• French aveline

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 g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 419
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. avellana
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. avellana
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. avellana
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aveline
8. ^ 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. avellana
9. ^ 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. avellana
10. ^ 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. 243
11. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 74
12. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. avellana
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. avellana
14. ^ 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. avellana
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 122