cama

Forms

cama f (plural camas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cama, inherited from Late Latin cama (“bedding, a bed on the ground”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is known only from Isidore of Seville, who describes the cama as a short bed close to the ground.^[2][5][6] It survives only in Spanish and Portuguese: Portuguese cama, Galician cama and Asturian cama.^[2][7][8] Corominas points out that the word for “bed” is unknown in Catalan, where cama means “leg”.^[2]

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3][9] Isidore himself connected it with Ancient Greek χαμαί (khamaí, “on the ground”), and Diez and Sofer noted that derivatives such as acamar, encamar and camada support his description of the cama as a layer of material spread on the ground to sleep on.^[2] Corominas also considers a Latin form of χαμευνία (khameunía, “sleeping on the ground”), from which Aragonese cameña (“bed of straw”) would come, with the Spanish word as a back-formation, but rejects it because the Latin word is already in Isidore.^[2] He prefers Sofer's view that it is a pre-Roman word, probably Iberian or perhaps Celtiberian, and notes that Basque kamaiña (“bed, pallet”) and its relatives are old loans from Romance, not evidence for that origin.^[2] The REW leaves the origin open, allowing the Greek link only through a shortening of χαμεύνη (khameúnē, “bed on the ground”), and Wiktionary suggests a Paleo-Hispanic source.^[8][1] Corominas rejects Harri Meier's derivation from Latin squamare (“to scale”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date the word to 1251, in Calila e Dimna.^[2][3] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy) already uses it for the lair of a lion cub: quando yaz' en la cama e vee venaçión “when it lies in its bed and sees game”.^[10][11] The earliest CDH hit, camas in the Cantar de mio Cid, is a different word, Old Spanish cama “leg”, from Vulgar Latin camba (“leg”).^[10][12][13]

Semantic evolution

Corominas stresses that the cama was at first a bed on the floor, a simpler and humbler thing than the lecho: in rural Galicia the cama is still a low pallet in the loft or kitchen, while the leito is the canopied bed.^[2] The sense of a bed in general is already in Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[14] In 1729 the Academy's first dictionary also used the word for the bed hangings, and figuratively for anything one can lie on, such as the ground, the grass or the grave.^[15] The sense “grave” is now obsolete.^[4]

From the bed of people the word passed to the lair of animals and the straw spread in stables, and to things lying flat: the floor of a cart, the side of a melon that rests on the soil, a layer of food in a dish.^[4][16] The phrase hacer la cama a alguien, “to work in secret against someone”, was in the Academy's dictionary by 1884.^[17] In Puerto Rico and Argentina tenderle la cama a uno could also mean to help someone in a love affair.^[18] In the Americas the word also names the load bed of a lorry (Cuba, Dominican Republic), a blanket (Bolivia), the deep part of a furrow (Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador) and the deep cut made in a tree before felling it (Dominican Republic).^[19][20] Tagalog kama and the Chavacano word were borrowed from Spanish.^[1]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in a 15th-century copy) uses it for an animal's lair.^[10]
• 1251 – first record in the DCECH and the BDELC, in Calila e Dimna.^[2][3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for a bed with its frame, mattresses and covers.^[14]
• 1498 – first record of the diminutive camilla.^[3]
• 1513 – first record of camada, in the sense “litter of young”, and first record of the word in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[2][21]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin lectus and torus as its equivalents.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists the Greek etymologies proposed for it without choosing one.^[23]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the senses “bed hangings” and, figuratively, the grave or the grass.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy records guardar cama and hacer la cama a uno.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Low Latin cama.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bed: the piece of furniture people lie on to sleep, a frame with a mattress, pillow and bedclothes: Los niños ya están en la cama.^[4][1][25]
2. The frame of a bed on its own.^[4]
3. A place for a patient in a hospital, or for a boarder in a school.^[4][25]
4. The place where animals lie down to rest; a lair.^[4]
5. Bedding of straw or ferns spread in a stable for the livestock and to make manure.^[4]
6. (traditional) The floor of a cart.^[4]
7. The part of a melon or other fruit that rests on the ground while it grows.^[4]
8. A layer of food laid over or under another.^[4]
9. A litter (camada) of young animals.^[4]
10. (printing) A packing of card or paper put on the impression cylinder.^[4]
11. (nautical) The hollow a stranded boat makes in sand or mud.^[4]
12. (Cuba, Dominican Republic) The load bed of a lorry.^[19][20]

Word family

• camada
• camastro
• camero
• camilla
• encamar
• acamar
• camillero

Related words

• Portuguese cama

Usage notes

Set phrases include cama de matrimonio “double bed”, guardar cama “to stay in bed when ill” and hacer la cama a alguien “to plot against someone”.^[4][17] A separate word cama (the DLE's cama²) names the curved beam of a plough, each bar of a horse's bit and a felloe of a wheel.^[4][26] It goes back to Proto-Celtic *kambos (“curved”), and the Leonese form camba shows that it is a different word from cama “bed”.^[27][28][4] The DCECH dates this word to 1369, in an Aragonese inventory.^[27]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 773
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cama
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. cama
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. cama
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. cama
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 657
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1537
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cama
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cama
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cama
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1306
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 108
14. ^ 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. cama
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 83
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 129
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 193
18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 278
19. ^ 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. cama
20. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. cama
21. ^ 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. cama
22. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 309
23. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 393
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 178
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cama
26. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cama
27. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 775
28. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cama II