cielo

Forms

cielo m (plural cielos)^[1] Old Spanish texts write it cielo and çielo, more rarely celo and sielo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin caelum (“sky, heaven”).^[3][4][5][1] Old Spanish had the same form, cielo.^[1][2]

The same word is Portuguese céu, Galician ceo, Asturian cielu, Catalan cel, Occitan cèl, French ciel, Italian cielo and Romanian cer.^[6][7][1] In Old French, Occitan and Spanish the word also meant a ceiling, and with a word for “mouth” it named the palate in several Romance languages, as in cielo de la boca.^[7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs *kailo- (“sky”), and Wiktionary derives it, with doubts, from *kéh₂i-lom (“whole”), a term of augury for the whole sky as opposed to templum, “the part”.^[8][1] An older etymology connected it with the Germanic and Baltic words for “clear”.^[8] Varro already derived it from Ancient Greek κοῖλον (koîlon, “hollow”), an explanation Covarrubias repeats and Monlau still followed.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in Rodrigo's prayer as he leaves Castile: „A ti lo gradesco, Dios, que cielo e tierra guías” “I thank you, God, who guides heaven and earth”.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose cielo is the apparent sphere of the sky with its stars, the abode of God and the blessed, and each of the spheres of Ptolemy's astronomy, as in el cielo ochavo.^[12] Autoridades (1729) defines it as the region above the elements, then as the heavenly court, and by metonymy as God himself, as in ¡valedme, cielos!.^[13] The Academy's edition of 1817 lists the climate of a country, the canopy of a bed or a coach, cielo de la boca “palate” and cielo raso “flat ceiling”.^[14]

Modern Spanish also uses cielo as a term of endearment and for a delightful person.^[5] In Argentina and Uruguay cielo or cielito is a popular song and dance of the gauchos, named for the word with which its lyrics begin.^[15][4]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid (14th-century copy).^[11][3]
• late 12th century – first record of celestial, in the form celestrial in the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[4][3]
• 1250–1280 – Alfonso X's prose uses cielo for the sky, heaven and the astronomical spheres.^[12]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1535 – first record of celaje, in Fernández de Oviedo.^[3][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias refuses to discuss the number and substance of the heavens and leaves them to philosophers and theologians.^[9]
• 1729 – Autoridades defines the word as the region above the elements.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records cielo de la boca and cielo raso.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sky: the apparent blue sphere that surrounds the Earth.^[5][1]
2. The atmosphere.^[5]
3. heaven: in Christian tradition, the abode of the angels, the saints and the blessed in God's presence; also used in the plural.^[5][1]
4. Heavenly bliss.^[5]
5. God or Providence; also in the plural: ¡Valedme, cielos!^[5]
6. The top part that covers something, such as a canopy: el cielo de la cama.^[5]
7. (endearing) Darling, as a form of address: ¿Qué te pasa, cielo?^[5][17]
8. (colloquial) A delightful person or thing.^[5]

Word family

• celaje
• rascacielos
• cielito
• cielo raso

Related words

• celeste
• celestial
• célico
• Latin caelum
• Portuguese céu

Usage notes

Set phrases include a cielo abierto “in the open air”, cielo raso “flat ceiling”, poner el grito en el cielo “to raise an outcry” and the proverb al que al cielo escupe, en la cara le cae.^[1][18][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cielo
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 66
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cielo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cielo
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1231
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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. 595
10. ^ Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 230
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cielo
12. ^ 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. cielo
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 344
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 200
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 235
16. ^ 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. cielo
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cielo
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 173