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cadena

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word cadena

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1200 Almerich, La fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin catena
Ultimate origin
Latin catēna
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin catēna
French chaîne
Spanish cadena
From the same root
Latin catella ← catēna

Pronunciation

  • /kaˈdena/, [kaˈð̞e.na][1]

Forms

cadena f (plural cadenas)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin catēna (“chain”); Old Spanish cadena is recorded from the early 13th century.[2][3][4][1] The same word is Portuguese cadeia, Galician cadea, Asturian cadia, Catalan cadena, Old Occitan cadena, French chaîne, Italian catena and Sardinian cadena; Romanian cătină names the fruit of the sea buckthorn.[5][6][7] The REW also lists Basque kate.[5] The DCECH takes cadeneta from Catalan.[2]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.[1][8] De Vaan suggests a derivative of a stem *kat-es-, also found in caterva (“crowd”).[9] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *katesnā and reports Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to link, weave together”) and Martirosyan's view of a Mediterranean substrate word.[1] Covarrubias explained it from the Latin idea that each link holds the next by catching it.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where a man goes through Jerusalem „con la cadena en el cuello” “with the chain round his neck”.[11][12] The DCECH's first record is in Berceo, who writes of a captive put „en fierros e en dura cadena” “in irons and a hard chain”.[2][11]

Semantic evolution

The early fueros use cadena for the chain of a prisoner beside the stocks.[11] Alfonso X's Lapidario describes a man with a chain round his neck, and the Gran conquista de Ultramar a boat tied with a silver chain.[13][14] The figurative use is as old as Berceo, who has the „tan mortal cadena” “so deadly a chain” loosened through the Virgin.[11] Nebrija gave cadena de oro o collar with Latin monile.[15]

Covarrubias wrote that gold chains were a mark of honour and iron ones of shame, used for prisoners, slaves, madmen and wild animals, and to close gates and harbours.[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades added “prison” as a metaphor and, in architecture, a frame of beams under a spire or dome.[16] Cadena perpetua, life imprisonment, is named after the chain once fixed to the convict's body.[17] The modern senses include a chain of shops, an assembly line, a radio or television network, a television channel and a sound system.[4]

In Puerto Rico cadenas are country songs and a dance with linked hands.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy.[11]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita, the earliest hit not known from a later copy.[11]
  • c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, the DCECH's first record.[11][2]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario.[13]
  • c. 1440 – the learned derivative concatenar.[3]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives cadena de oro with Latin monile and torquis.[15][19]
  • 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[20]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias describes chains of honour and of shame.[10]
  • 1644 – concatenación is first recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A chain: a series of links, usually of metal, used to tie, hold or adorn.[4][1]
  2. A row of linked elements.[4]
  3. A series of related actions, events or works: una cadena de despidos.[4]
  4. A group of people linked together for a purpose.[4]
  5. An immaterial tie or bond.[4]
  6. (usually in the plural) oppression, absolute power.[4]
  7. A group of shops or businesses of the same kind under one management.[4]
  8. An assembly line.[4]
  9. A network of radio or television stations, and the company that runs it.[4][1]
  10. A television channel.[4][1]
  11. A sound system, cadena de música.[4]
  12. (historical) A file of galley slaves or convicts chained together on the way to serve their sentence.[4]
  13. (computing) A string of characters.[1]

Word family

  • cadenilla
  • cadeneta
  • encadenar
  • desencadenar
  • encadenamiento
  • minicadena
  • cadena perpetua
  • reacción en cadena
  • catenario
  • catenaria
  • concatenación
  • candado
  • Latin catēna
  • Portuguese cadeia
  • French chaîne

Usage notes

Set phrases include cadena perpetua “life imprisonment”, cadena alimentaria “food chain”, cadena de frío “cold chain” and en cadena “in a series”.[4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 732
  3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cadena
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. cadena
  5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. catena
  8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chaîne
  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. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 375
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cadena
  12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cadena
  13. ^ 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. cadena
  14. ^ 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. 577
  15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 307
  16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 41
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cadena
  18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cadena
  19. ^ 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. cadena
  20. ^ 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. cadena

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cadena.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/cadena. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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