ceñir

Forms

ceñir (first-person singular present ciño, first-person singular preterite ceñí, past participle ceñido)^[1] The Cantar de mio Cid has the old strong preterite cinxo, cinxiestes, and Old Spanish texts also write çintho and çinio.^[2][3] Like reñir, the verb changes its stem vowel to i in some forms (ciño, ciñe, ciña), as Autoridades already noted.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cingō (“to surround, gird”).^[5][6][7][1] The same verb is Catalan cenyir, Portuguese cingir, Galician cinguir, French ceindre and Italian cingere.^[5][8][9] Bénaben notes that in both Spanish and French the verb is first recorded in the phrase “to gird on a sword”.^[10]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[11][1] De Vaan reconstructs only Proto-Italic *keng-, possibly related to an Umbrian word for officials “girded” or “ungirded”, and considers the comparisons with Baltic and Indo-Iranian words for binding or harnessing doubtful.^[11][1] Gómez de Silva derives it from Proto-Indo-European *keng-, a variant of *kenk- (“to gird”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) a girl of nine greets the hero: ¡Ya Campeador, en buen ora cinxiestes espada! “O Campeador, in a good hour you girded on your sword!”.^[3][10] The first sense is thus to put a sword belt round one's waist.^[10][2] Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) uses the reflexive for a prisoner who ties a rope round himself: ciñóse bien el preso.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the verb for fastening a belt or garment round the body.^[13] In 1611 Covarrubias adds that it can mean “to surround”, as a river or the sea surrounds a place, that ceñirse in a speech means to shorten it so as not to tire the audience, and that ceñir espada means to have reached manhood.^[14] Autoridades (1729) records it also in the sense “to grasp, comprehend”, and metaphorically for one thing encircling another.^[4]

The 19th-century dictionaries add a nautical sense, to sail as close to the wind as possible (navegar de bolina).^[15][16][17] Domínguez (1846–1847) lists phrases such as ceñir espada, ceñir la toga, ceñir mitra and ceñir corona for becoming a soldier, a magistrate, a bishop or a king, and complains that the Academy leaves them out.^[16] The reflexive “to keep to a task or subject” is in the Academy's dictionary of 2001.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has cinxo espada “girded on his sword”.^[6][5][3]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses the reflexive ciñóse in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for fastening something round the waist.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin cingo and incingo;^[19] desceñir and ceñidura are first recorded in his dictionary.^[19][5][6]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, cordones de ceñir mujeres “cords for women to gird themselves”, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1570 – the derivative ceñidor “belt, sash” is first recorded.^[6]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records ceñir espada “to reach manhood” and the figurative ceñirse in speaking.^[14]
• 1729 – Autoridades notes the change of e to i in ciño, ciñe.^[4]
• 1846 – Salvá records the nautical sense “to sail close-hauled”.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Latin cingere.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gird, to fit or fasten tightly round the waist, the body or a garment: Se ciñó el cinturón antes de salir.^[7][1]
2. Of a thing: to encircle or enclose another: Un muro de piedra ciñe el huerto.^[7][21]
3. To shorten, to reduce.^[7]
4. (nautical) To sail close-hauled, as near to the wind as possible.^[7][22]
5. (reflexive) To cut back on spending, words and the like.^[7]
6. (reflexive) To confine oneself to a task or subject: Cíñete a los hechos.^[7][21]

Word family

• ceñidor
• ceñidura
• desceñir

Related words

• cincho
• cinto
• cinta
• cintura
• recinto
• sucinto
• precinto

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 110
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 273
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 37
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ceñir
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ceñir
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
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)
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 583
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
16. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ceñir
19. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 324
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
22. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial