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campanilla

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word campanilla

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1230 Berceo, Vida de San Millán, as campaniella More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Late Latin campana
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish campana
Spanish campanilla

Pronunciation

  • /kampaˈniʝa/, [kãm.paˈni.ʝa], /kampaˈniʎa/[1]

Forms

campanilla f (plural campanillas)[1]

Etymology

It is the diminutive from Spanish campana (“bell”) + -illa, first recorded as campaniella.[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead takes it as inherited from Medieval Latin campānella (“little bell”), a word Niermeyer records in Medieval Latin.[1][6] The REW lists it with Italian campanella, Old French champenelle and Portuguese campainha among the derivatives of the Latin word for bell.[7]

campana is campana, recorded in 515 and short for a phrase meaning “vessels of Campania”, the region that produced the best bronze.[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, known from an 18th-century copy) mentions two little bells over the saint's altar: Dues campaniellas pienden sobre el so altar.[9][5] The first record in a manuscript of its own time is in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247: the owner of a biting dog deue le poner una campaniella al cuello “must put a little bell on its neck”.[9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word named a small bell of many uses;[10] Alfonso X's Primera Partida has the priest carrying the viaticum ring one.[10][9] Nebrija gives it the sense “uvula”.[8][11] Autoridades adds a bubble on water, and quotes a philosopher who compared human lives to such bubbles; it also records the saying a Fulano se le ha caído la campanilla for the uvula.[12]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds a wild plant with a bell-shaped flower and bell-shaped ornaments such as the tassels of fringes, and the phrase tener muchas campanillas for a person loaded with honours.[13] Alemany adds the printers' sense of a badly locked letter that falls with a noise.[14]

In the Americas, small bells for altars are listed in Puerto Rico in 1512.[15] There the name passed to many local plants: in Panama and Colombia a climbing Ipomoea, in Cuba the aguinaldo vine.[16][17] In the Dominican Republic it is also a shrill female voice.[16] Cebuano and Tagalog borrowed it as kampanilya.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has campaniellas (in an 18th-century copy).[9][5]
  • 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón have campaniella for a bell on a dog's neck.[9]
  • 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida (in a copy of c. 1290) has the priest ring one when carrying the viaticum.[9]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the sense “uvula”.[8][11]
  • 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[15]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the senses “handbell”, “bubble” and “uvula”.[12]
  • 1817 – the Academy adds the plant and the bell-shaped ornament.[13]
  • 1917 – Alemany records the printing sense.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small handbell with a handle, rung by shaking it: Mi abuela guardaba una campanilla de bronce en el comedor.[18][1]
  2. A small bell set ringing by a mechanism.[18]
  3. A bubble.[18][1]
  4. (anatomy) The uvula.[18][1][19]
  5. (botany) The bell-shaped flower of bindweed and other plants; any of these plants.[18][3][1]
  6. A bell-shaped ornament, such as the small tassels of a fringe.[18]
  7. (printing) A badly locked letter that falls with a noise onto the bed of the press.[18]
  8. (Panama, Colombia) A climbing plant with bell-shaped pink or lilac flowers, Ipomoea trifida.[16]
  9. (Dominican Republic) A very high, shrill female voice.[16]

Word family

  • campanillazo
  • campanillear
  • campana
  • campánula
  • campanario
  • Portuguese campainha

Usage notes

De campanillas or de muchas campanillas means “of great importance”: un abogado de campanillas.[18][3] In Spain Campanilla is the name of the fairy Tinker Bell.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. campanilla
  3. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. campanilla
  4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. campana
  5. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. campanilla
  6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. campāna
  8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. campana
  9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. campanilla
  10. ^ a b 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. 600
  11. ^ 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. campanilla
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 98
  13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 165
  14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 313
  15. ^ 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. campanilla
  16. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. campanilla
  17. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 285
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. campanilla
  19. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. campanilla
Cite this entry

“Campanilla.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/campanilla. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·