clavo

Forms

clavo m (plural clavos)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write clauo and clabo.^[2][3] Leonese has cravo, and Catalan and Aragonese clau.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish clavo, inherited from Latin clāvus (“nail, peg”).^[5][6][7][1] The word kept the Latin initial cluster /kl/, a conservative outcome that Corominas compares with claro, flor, plato, plaza and plomo, where the more traditional pronunciation of the upper classes won.^[5] He rejects the idea of a learned or semi-learned word: it is frequent in the earliest texts, from the Cid, Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre on.^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese cravo, Galician cravo, Asturian clavu, Catalan clau, Occitan clau, French clou and Italian chiodo.^[8][4][9]

The Latin noun goes back to *klāwo- (“closing, barring”) and Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to close”), and has the same base as clāvis (“key”); de Vaan suggests that the Proto-Italic word was first an adjective, “which closes off”.^[10][1]

For the spice, the DCECH points to Catalan clavell “clove” (1455), named from its likeness to a nail;^[11] Corominas also considers that the Catalan and Occitan word might come from Greek-Latin caryophyllum, and the Spanish sense would then be a calque.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has the word for the gilded nails that decorated leather hangings: los guadamecís vermejos e los clavos bien dorados “the red leather hangings and the nails well gilded”.^[11][5][6] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) uses it for the nails of the tabernacle, and Berceo for the nails of the Cross.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already used the word for a peg of metal or wood, for the spice in clavos de girofre, and in astronomy for a thin pin or pointer.^[3] Covarrubias explained the spice as named for its likeness to the made nail, and recorded the proverb un clavo saca otro, one trouble makes you forget another.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the hard, pointed corn on the toes and the plug of lint put into a deep wound.^[13]

Figurative senses grew from the sharp pain: a harm someone suffers, a grief that weighs on the heart, a troublesome person or thing, and in commerce a product that does not sell.^[7] In Mexico and Honduras clavo is the rich part of a vein of ore, and in Mexico and Chile a worry or burden.^[14] In Mexico it is also money, or money and valuables kept hidden, and in the Dominican Republic savings for an emergency.^[15] Common phrases are dar en el clavo, to hit the mark, and agarrarse a un clavo ardiendo, to try anything to escape a danger.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[5][6][11]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses the word for a horseshoe nail.^[11]
• 1250–1300 – clavos de girofre “cloves” in the Moamín.^[3]
• 1438 – the derivative clavazón “set of nails”.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the sense “clove”.^[5]
• 1512 – first records in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records un clavo saca otro.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin clavus.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nail: a long, thin piece of metal with a head and a point, driven into something or used to fasten one thing to another.^[7][1]
2. A hard, pointed corn on the foot.^[7][1]
3. (dated) A plug of lint put into a wound.^[7][13]
4. A clove, the dried flower bud of the clavero, used as a spice; also clavo de olor.^[7][1]
5. A migraine (jaqueca).^[7][1]
6. A harm or loss someone suffers; a sharp pain or a grief that weighs on the heart.^[7]
7. (colloquial) A troublesome person or thing; a product that does not sell.^[7]
8. (medicine) The dead core that comes away from a boil.^[7]
9. (Mexico, Dominican Republic) Money kept hidden or saved for an emergency.^[15][1]

Word family

• clavar
• clavete
• clavetear
• sacaclavos
• clavazón

Related words

• clava
• clavel
• Latin clāvus
• Portuguese cravo

Usage notes

Set phrases include dar en el clavo “to hit the nail on the head”, por los clavos de Cristo “for heaven's sake” and sacarse el clavo “to get one's own back”.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. clavo
3. ^ a b c 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. clavo
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1679
5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 98
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. clavo
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. clavo
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1984
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. clavu
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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, p. s.v. clavo
12. ^ 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. 468
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 378
14. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 359
15. ^ 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. clavo
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. clavo
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 231