cuna

Forms

cuna f (plural cunas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cuna, inherited from Latin cūna (“cradle”).^[2][3][4][1] In Latin the usual form was the plural cūnae with a singular sense, but Varro used the singular.^[2][5]

Spanish, Basque kuma, Romansh and some northern Italian dialects kept the Latin word, and Italian culla continues its diminutive.^[2][6] Most of the other Ibero- and Gallo-Romance languages replaced it with descendants of the Celtic *bertion: Portuguese berço, Catalan bres, French berceau and brizo in León.^[2]

The Latin word goes back to *koinā, from *ḱoi-no- (“lair, cradle”), a derivative of *ḱey- (“to lie”).^[7][1] The root is in κεῖται (keîtai, “lies”) and κοίτη (koítē, “bed, lair”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Berceo.^[2][8] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy) Mary addresses her son que governavas todo yaziendo en la cuna “who ruled everything while lying in the cradle”.^[9] The Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250) tells how Hercules de la cuna strangled the serpents.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 defines the cradle as a small box in which children are rocked to sleep, and records conocer a uno desde la cuna “to know someone from early childhood”.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) adds the figurative senses “birth, birthplace” and “beginning of something”.^[11] In 1817 the Academy recorded the foundling hospital, “in some places”, and lineage, as in de humilde cuna “of humble birth”, with the proverb lo que se aprende en la cuna siempre dura “what is learned in the cradle lasts for ever”.^[12]

Later dictionaries added a rope footbridge, a ship's launching cradle and the space between a bull's horns.^[13][4] In 19th-century Cuba a cuna was a gathering of humble people for dancing.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the first record, in Berceo.^[2][3]
• c. 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre.^[9]
• c. 1400 – a Latin–Spanish glossary gives it for Latin crepudium.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: cuna de niño, Latin cunae.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records conocer a uno desde la cuna.^[10]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades has the senses “birthplace” and “beginning”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the foundling hospital and lineage.^[12]
• late 19th century – the derivative acunar “to rock”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cradle, cot or crib: a small bed for a baby, with high sides or bars, sometimes made so that it can be rocked: Dejó al bebé dormido en la cuna.^[4][1]
2. A foundling hospital (inclusa).^[4]
3. A rustic footbridge of two parallel ropes with crosswise slats.^[4]
4. birthplace, homeland.^[4][1]
5. Lineage, family, birth: de humilde cuna, de ilustre cuna.^[4][1]
6. The origin or beginning of something: la cuna de la ópera.^[4][1]
7. The space between the horns of a bull or cow.^[4]
8. (nautical) A launching cradle for a ship (basada).^[4]
9. (military) The part of a gun carriage that holds the barrel and lets it slide back on recoil.^[4]

Word family

• acunar
• cunero
• asaltacunas
• cunear
• cunera
• encunar

Related words

• Latin cūnae
• Portuguese berço

Usage notes

Canción de cuna is a lullaby, and conocer a alguien desde su cuna is to have known someone since early childhood.^[4] The DLE has a second cuna, of different origin: the Guna people of Panama and Colombia and their Chibchan language.^[4][18] The Wikcionario derives it from Guna guna “people”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 290
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuna
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cuna
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cūnae
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cuna
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 158
9. ^ 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. cuna
10. ^ 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. 556
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 703
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 266
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 497
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 328
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 283
16. ^ 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. 838
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 322
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cuna
19. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org