cáñamo

Forms

cáñamo m (plural cáñamos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote cannamo and canamo.^[2][3] Aragonese has cáñemo and cáñimo, and the Asturian form is cáñamu.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cannamo, inherited from Late Latin cannabum (“hemp”), the form of Latin cannabis used in Hispania.^[6][7][8][1] Isidore of Seville already uses this form, and Corominas explains the change of ending by the word being foreign, without a settled tradition in Latin.^[6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis, “hemp”).^[9][1] Beekes calls the Greek word a loan of unknown eastern origin, perhaps Scythian or Thracian, and notes that it reached the Germanic languages before Grimm's law (Old English hænep, Old High German hanaf).^[10]

The Latin /b/ became /m/ by the spread of nasality from the preceding /nn/, a change already seen in the 11th century in cañamar and in Andalusian Arabic forms such as قنم (qinnam).^[6] Dozy looked for an Arabic cause, but Corominas compares Latin Iacobus > Italian Giacomo and Catalan Jaume, and the same change in cànem and the medieval Portuguese form cánamo.^[6] Corominas holds that Portuguese cânhamo is a borrowing from Castilian, owed to the fame of the hemp grown in Spain, and that Galician also took the Castilian word in place of its own Galician cánabo.^[6]

The same Latin word is Italian canapa, French chanvre and Romanian cânepă.^[11] Wiktionary calls the word a doublet of the learned cannabis.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1170.^[6][7] The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Fuero de Madrid (dated before 1141–1235, in a copy of the first half of the 13th century), in a list of goods: canamo & trapo gordo “hemp and coarse cloth”.^[2] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) forbids soaking flax or hemp inside the town: non rieguen ni lino, ni cannamo.^[2] In both it is the plant grown for its fibre.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario names cannamo with flax and cotton among plants that yield cloth, and a text of 1256 has cuerdas de cannamo “hemp ropes”, so the word covered the plant and the fibre from the 13th century.^[3] Nebrija glossed cañamo ierva with Latin cannabis.^[12] By extension the word names things made of hemp, such as a sling, a net or a ship's rigging, and cloth woven from it.^[8] Gaspar y Roig record the old phrase oler a cáñamo el pescuezo, said of someone in danger of being hanged.^[13]

In the Americas the word appears from 1516, in Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico.^[14] There it also names other fibre plants, and in Central America, the Caribbean, Bolivia and Chile a thin cord or twine, often of henequen.^[8][15] Wiktionary also gives the sense “cannabis, marijuana”.^[1]

Timeline

• 925 – a Leonese charter in Latin mentions cannamum.^[16]
• 1043 – the derivative cañamar “hemp field” in a charter.^[6][7]
• 1170 – first record of cáñamo in Corominas.^[6][7]
• 1218–c. 1250 – cannamo in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[2]
• 1256 – cuerdas de cannamo “hemp ropes” in a text of Alfonso X's circle.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records cañamo, cañamazo and cañamón.^[12][7]
• 1516 – first records from the Americas, in Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. hemp, the tall annual plant Cannabis sativa, with a rough hollow stem and divided leaves.^[8][1]
2. The fibre made from the stem of this plant: Las cuerdas del barco eran de cáñamo trenzado.^[8][1]
3. Cloth woven from hemp.^[8]
4. A thing made of hemp, such as a sling, a net or a ship's rigging.^[8]
5. (Latin America) Any of several other fibre plants.^[8]
6. (Central America, Caribbean, Bolivia, Chile) twine, a thin cord of hemp or henequen.^[8][15]
7. cannabis, marijuana.^[1]

Word family

• cañamar
• cañamazo
• cañamero
• cañamiza
• cañamón

Related words

• cannabis
• Catalan cànem
• Portuguese cânhamo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cáñamo
3. ^ a b c 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. cáñamo
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1359
5. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. cáñamu
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 824
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cáñamo
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cáñamo
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. κάνναβις
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b 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. cáñamo
13. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 474
14. ^ 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. cáñamo
15. ^ 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. cáñamo
16. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. cáñamo