bruma

Forms

bruma f (plural brumas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin brūma (“winter solstice; winter”), first used in Spanish in the Latin sense “winter”.^[2][3][4] Autoridades called it a purely Latin word;^[5][1] Wiktionary treats it as inherited.^[5][1] The Latin word is the old superlative *brevima of brevis (“short”): the solstice is the shortest day of the year.^[6][7][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese bruma, Galician bruma, Catalan broma, Occitan bruma, French brume, Italian bruma and Romanian brumă.^[9][10][11] In the Romance of Gaul and Hispania it survives only in the sense “fog”, the typical weather of winter;^[12] Coromines suggests that the change began with Latin adjectives such as brūmōsus.^[12] The French word was taken from Latin in 1265, perhaps through Old Occitan.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juan de Mena's Laberinto de Fortuna (1444) says that the stars of Atlas siempre s'esconden venida la bruma, “always hide when winter comes”.^[14][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “fog” appears in 1570, according to the BDELC, while the DCECH first finds it early in the 17th century in Ruiz de Alarcón.^[3][2] A Portuguese account of the Canaries of 1590 quotes the islanders saying ataja la bruma of the mist.^[15] Terreros described it as a sailors' word for the light mists that come before rain.^[16] From 1817 the Academy defined it as the fog that rises from the sea, and marked “winter” as old.^[17] The DLE now gives fog in general, especially over the sea.^[4] Moliner and VOX add a figurative use, often in the plural, for confusion or darkness of mind.^[18][19] In the Canaries it is a low cloud that creeps along the ground.^[20]

Timeline

• 1444 – Juan de Mena uses bruma for “winter”.^[3][14]
• 1570 – first record of the sense “fog”.^[3]
• 1590 – a Portuguese account of the Canaries quotes ataja la bruma.^[15]
• 1627 – first record of the derivative brumoso.^[2][3]
• 1726 – Autoridades still knows only the sense “winter”.^[5]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as sea fog.^[17]
• 1831 – first record of brumazón.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. mist, light fog (niebla), especially the kind that forms over the sea: La bruma cubría el puerto al amanecer.^[4][1][18]
2. (figurative, often in the plural) Confusion or lack of clarity in the mind.^[18][19]
3. (obsolete) Winter (invierno).^[4][1]

Word family

• brumoso
• brumazón

Related words

• breve
• broma
• Latin brūma
• French brume

Usage notes

Older dictionaries also have bruma as a variant of broma, the shipworm, recorded in the Americas from 1515;^[21][22][23] Corominas derives abrumar “to overwhelm” from that word, not from bruma “fog”.^[21][22][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 681
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bruma
4. ^ a b c d 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. bruma
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 690
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 126
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 83
12. ^ 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. 2, 264
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ 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. bruma
15. ^ a b 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. bruma
16. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 278
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 145
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bruma
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. bruma
20. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. bruma
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 538
22. ^ a b 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. broma
23. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 22