espejo

Forms

espejo m (plural espejos)^[1] The Glosas Emilianenses (about 950) write spillu.^[2] Old Spanish texts have espeio and espejo.^[2][3] Old Aragonese had spiello, in an inventory of 1406.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin specŭlum (“mirror”), through Old Spanish espeio.^[2][4][5][1] Wiktionary gives the syncopated Vulgar Latin form speclum.^[1] Corominas thinks the Spanish word may come from a Vulgar Latin variant *spiculum, with a change of suffix or the influence of conspicere (“to look at”), a form that clearly underlies the Mirandese, Sardinian and Basque words.^[2] Italian and Catalan answer to the classical form, and the form of the Emilian gloss is hard to interpret.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese espelho, Galician espello, Asturian espeyu, Aragonese espiello, Catalan espill, Occitan espelh and Italian specchio.^[6][2][1]

The Latin noun is formed from speciō (“to see, observe”), an archaic verb.^[7][8] The verb continues *spekjō, from Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti.^[1] Gómez de Silva gives the root as *speḱ- (“to look, examine”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Emilianenses, of about 950, have the form spillu.^[2][4] The BDELC dates espejo itself to 1220–1250, in Berceo: in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy) everyone looks to the saint como a un espejo, “as to a mirror”, that is, as a model.^[4][10] The literal sense is in the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy) and the Libro de Alexandre, in a list of goods: espejos e sortijas, “mirrors and rings”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word means both a shining surface that reflects images and, figuratively, an image or example.^[12] The figurative sense “model to follow” gave titles such as Espejo de caballerías, the romance of chivalry that Cervantes names in the Quijote.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 described mirrors of steel, polished silver and crystal backed with tin or silver, made above all in Venice.^[14]

The Academy's dictionaries listed espejo de cuerpo entero “full-length mirror”, its older equivalent espejo de armar, and the burning glass espejo ustorio.^[15] The 1899 edition has the figurative senses “something in which another thing is reflected” (el teatro es espejo de la vida) and “a model worthy of imitation”.^[16] Nebrija's espejuelo “eyeglass” is still common in Cuba.^[2] In Puerto Rico espejo is the flat stern board of a boat.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses write spillu.^[2]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses espejo figuratively in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[10][4]
• c. 1240 – espeio “mirror” in the Libro de Apolonio.^[10][11]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses espeio for an image or example.^[12]
• 1495 – Nebrija records the diminutive espejuelo.^[4]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico inventories.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes mirrors of steel, silver and crystal.^[14]
• 1884 – the derivative espejismo “mirage” enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2][4]
• 1899 – the Academy records the learned doublet espéculo.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mirror: a sheet of glass coated with mercury on the back, or of polished metal, that reflects what is in front of it.^[5][1]
2. Something that gives an image of something else: Sus novelas son un espejo de su tiempo.^[5][19]
3. A model worth studying and imitating.^[5][20]
4. (architecture) A small round or oval window, usually framed with ornaments.^[5]
5. (Andalusia) The clear transparency of golden wines.^[5]
6. (in the plural) A whorl of hair on the front of a horse's chest.^[5]
7. (Puerto Rico) The flat stern board of a boat.^[17]

Word family

• espejismo
• espejuelo
• espejear
• espejero

Related words

• espéculo
• Latin speculum
• Portuguese espelho
• Catalan espill

Usage notes

Espejo de cuerpo entero is a full-length mirror, and espejo retrovisor a vehicle's rear-view mirror.^[5][1]

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 h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 740
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. espejo
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espejo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. espejo
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6256
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. speculum
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. speciō
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. espejo
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. espejo
11. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 237
12. ^ a b 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. espejo
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. s.v. espejo
14. ^ 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. 790
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 387
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 424
17. ^ 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. espejo
18. ^ 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. espejo
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espejo
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. espejo