encía

Forms

encía f (plural encías)^[1] Old Spanish wrote enzía, with a voiced /dz/, and also enziva, which kept the /v/ (Calila e Dimna, Juan Ruiz).^[2] Southern Leonese has enciba, endiva, enziba and zinziba;^[3] enciva and anciva are found in Burgos, Palencia and Cantabria, and Asturian has enxiva.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish enzía, inherited from Latin gingīva (“gum”).^[2][4][5][1] Corominas calls the development regular, citing Menéndez Pidal's Manual; the Latin /v/ was lost, though some areas kept it.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese gengiva, Asturian enxiva, Aragonese cheniva, Catalan geniva, French gencive, Italian gengiva and Romanian gingie.^[6][3][1] In Catalan and French one of the two palatal consonants was dissimilated.^[7][8]

De Vaan considers the origin of the Latin word unknown and finds the comparison with words meaning “round” or “ball” unconvincing; its ending recalls salīva.^[9] Wiktionary mentions a possible link with Proto-Indo-European *ǵyewh₁- (“to chew”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250, in a 13th-century manuscript) recommends a powdered stone pora apretar los dientes & las enzias que son mal paradas “to firm up the teeth and the gums that are in bad state”.^[10][11] Corominas's first record is the Calila e Dimna of 1251, where a dog gnawing a bone breaks its gums.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The sense has not changed since the 13th century.^[2][5] Nebrija in 1492 glossed Latin gingiva with enzia.^[12] Salvá in 1846 noted that the word is usually plural.^[13] The learned derivatives gingival and gingivitis were built on the Latin word, gingivitis still missing from the Academy's 1936 dictionary.^[2] Modern medicine distinguishes the free and the attached gum.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario mentions enzias that are in bad state.^[10]
• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna, Corominas's first record.^[2][4]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary renders gingiva as enzia.^[12]
• 1546 – first record in the Americas, at Santo Domingo.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin gingiva.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. gum (usually in the plural): the flesh that covers the inner side of the jaws and holds the teeth: Le dolían las encías después del dentista.^[5][17][1]

Related words

• gingival
• gingivitis
• Latin gingīva
• Portuguese gengiva

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 597
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gingiva
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. encía
5. ^ a b c 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. encía
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 465
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gencive
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. encía
11. ^ 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. encía
12. ^ 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. encía
13. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 441
14. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. encía
15. ^ 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. encía
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 392
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. encía