enjambre

Forms

enjambre m (plural enjambres)^[1] The 13th-century fueros and the Libro de Alexandre write exanbre or exambre;^[2][3][4] enxanbre and enxambre follow in Juan Ruiz, Alonso de Palencia and Nebrija.^[2][3][4] Dialect forms include ensambre (Burgos, Asturias), esambre (Cantabria), sambre (Burgos, Aragon), jambre (Aragon) and Asturian ensame and enxame.^[5][3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish exambre, inherited from Latin exāmen (“swarm”).^{[3][6][7][2][1]} The ⟨n⟩ of the first syllable, which appears from the 14th century, Gómez de Silva puts down to the influence of the prefix en-.^[8][3] The learned examen “examination” is a doublet, from another sense of the same Latin word.^[1][9][5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese enxame, Galician enxame, Asturian ensame, Aragonese xambre, Catalan eixam, Occitan eissam, French essaim and Italian sciame.^[3][10][5]

The Latin word comes from *exagmen, formed from ex- (“out”) and agō (“to drive”): the swarm is what is driven out of the hive.^[1][11] The OLD derives it from *exagsmen, related to exigō (“to drive out”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) has a heading Del exanbre “On the swarm”.^[2] The fueros of Cáceres and Usagre rule that a swarm leaving one enclosure and coming back with others is to be shared: Toda exambre que exiere de un corral et fuere a otro.^[2] Corominas, who did not have these texts, gave Juan Ruiz's enxanbre (1330–1343) as the first record.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, a crowd of people or animals, is old: the Libro de Alexandre compares the stones and darts thrown in battle to exambres d'abejas ajuntadas “swarms of bees together”, and Cervantes speaks of slanderers como enxambres de abejas.^[2][13] The Academy defined the bee swarm and the metaphor side by side from 1817.^[14]

In Mexico an enjambre is a sweet of nuts or seeds bound with caramel or chocolate, and in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Chile a series of small earthquakes that may come before a larger one.^[15] In Cuba it names two spotted fishes, the spots likened to swarms of bees.^[16]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has exanbre.^[2]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a stone to the wax of a new swarm, cera de exambre de abeias nueuas.^[17][2]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz writes enxanbre, the first record Corominas gives.^[3][6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija enters enxambre de abejas and the verb enxambrar.^[3][18]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, at Santo Domingo.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin examen.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A swarm of bees: the bees that leave a hive with their queen to found a new colony.^[7][1]
2. A great crowd of people or animals moving together: Un enjambre de turistas llenaba la plaza.^[7][1]
3. (Mexico) A sweet of chopped nuts or seeds held together with caramel or chocolate.^[15]
4. (Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile) A series of small earthquakes that may precede a larger one.^[15]

Word family

• enjambrar

Related words

• examen
• Portuguese enxame
• Catalan eixam

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. enjambre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 631
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. enjambre
5. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. examen
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. enjambre
7. ^ 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. enjambre
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 261
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. enjambre
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. enjambre
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 465
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 362
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. enjambre
16. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 208
17. ^ 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. enjambre
18. ^ 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
19. ^ 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. enjambre
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 430