enebro

Forms

enebro m (plural enebros)^[1] Old Spanish also has genebro.^[2][3] Regional forms include nebro in Castile and Salamanca, jinebro in Álava and Aragon, Aragonese chinebro and chinepro, and in Salamanca enjumbre, jimbre and joimbre.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin jiniperus (“juniper”), the Vulgar Latin form of Latin iūniperus.^[5][6][7][1] This form is in the Appendix Probi, and a glossary spelling ⟨inipyrus⟩ also points to it.^[5] Corominas explains it by a kind of vowel assimilation.^[5] Wiktionary cites it as ziniperus, whose ⟨z⟩ may show an affricate pronunciation of the initial consonant.^[1]

All the Romance forms come from the Vulgar Latin one: Portuguese zimbro, Catalan ginebre, Occitan genebre, French genièvre, Italian ginepro and Romanian jneapăn, and Basque ipuru was borrowed from it.^[5][8] The Portuguese word goes back to *jĩebro and is already spelt ⟨zimbrus⟩ in an 11th-century Latin–Arabic glossary.^[5]

Wiktionary notes that the Latin word is often connected with iūncus (“reed”), and reports Brüch's view that its ⟨p⟩ is due to Sabine speakers who borrowed the name from Umbrian.^[1] The learned junípero, in the Academy's dictionary in modern times, is an unnecessary adaptation of the Latin word, according to Corominas.^[5] ginebra “gin”, recorded in 1817, is from Catalan ginebra, a spelling of the Catalan name of the juniper, because the liquor is made with juniper berries.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Abenalgazzar, who died in 1004, as cited by Menéndez Pidal; the first Castilian document with the word is a charter of Lerma of 1148.^[5][2] The DHLE's first record is Abraham of Toledo's Moamín (1250), on hunting animals, for the shrub: tomen buena pez, que sea de enebro “let them take good pitch, of juniper”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The DHLE dates the sense “juniper berry” to about 1471 and “juniper wood” to 1485.^[3] The Alfonsine prose uses the word for the shrub, its resin and its wood.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 praised its fragrant, lasting wood and its gum, used for the varnish of painters and sword-makers, and called its berries nebrinas.^[11] The 1732 Autoridades quotes Laguna's Dioscorides: juniper splinters are good for picking the teeth.^[12]

From the late 18th century botanical translations name many species of Juniperus as enebros, including several that botanists class as savins (sabinas); the word has lived beside ginebro and nebro throughout its history.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1004 – recorded by Abenalgazzar (end of the 10th century in the BDELC).^[5][6]
• 1148 – a charter of Lerma.^[5][2]
• 1200–1250 – genebro in the Fazienda de Ultramar.^[2]
• 1250 – Abraham of Toledo's Moamín.^[3][9]
• 1268 – the place name Val de Enebro in a charter.^[9]
• c. 1400 – in the Escorial and Toledo glossaries.^[5]
• c. 1471 – first used for the berry; 1485 for the wood.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: Enebro mata espinosa, Latin iuniperus.^[13]
• 1551 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the tree and its gum.^[11]
• 1817 – ginebra “gin” enters the Academy's dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. juniper: a shrub of the cypress family, three to four metres high, with stiff, sharp needle-like leaves in threes and blue-black berries: Las bayas del enebro dan su aroma a la ginebra.^[7][1][15]
2. The reddish, strong and fragrant wood of this shrub.^[7][16]

Word family

• enebral
• nebreda
• enebrina

Related words

• junípero
• ginebra
• Latin iūniperus
• Portuguese zimbro
• Catalan ginebre

Usage notes

Enebro de la miera is a species with a straight trunk, leaves with two whitish lines and reddish berries.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. enebro
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. enebro
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. enebro
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 610
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. enebro
7. ^ a b c d 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. enebro
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4624
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. enebro
10. ^ 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. enebro
11. ^ 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. 739
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 459
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 344
14. ^ 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. enebro
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. enebro
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. enebro