esquina

Forms

esquina f (plural esquinas)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Gothic *skina (“small bar; shinbone”), as the DLE has it, comparing Old High German scina (“shinbone; pin”).^[2][3][1] Corominas gives the Germanic word the senses “small bar of wood, metal or bone”, “shinbone” and “spine”, and explains the Spanish sense as a comparison between a corner and a projecting bone.^[3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *skinō, which also gave English shin and, through Frankish, French échine (“backbone”).^[1][4] Gómez de Silva derives it instead from Old French eschine (“backbone”), through the sense “ridge, edge”.^[5] For Catalan esquena (“back”) Coromines thinks the source more likely Frankish than Gothic.^[6] In 1884 the Academy derived the word from esquena.^[7]

The Germanic noun may be derived from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split”).^[1][8] Covarrubias had thought of a Greek word for “extreme”, an idea the Autoridades repeats.^[9][10] Moliner derives the word from Latin schema.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest record is in the Libro del Tesoro of the end of the 13th century.^[12] The CDH's earliest hit is the Libro del cavallero Cifar (1300–1305, in a copy of the late 15th century), where a table has a ruby at each of its four esquinas.^[13] The first text with no later copy is the Ordenamiento de Alcalá de Henares of 1348, which orders cloth to be measured por la esquina.^[13] The BDELC dates the word 1431–1450, and apparently the end of the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija renders esquina as Latin angulus exterior, an outer angle, and the Autoridades restricts it to the corner formed by two walls where the pavement ends and the streets meet.^[14][10] Bénaben notes that esquina is an outer, projecting corner, as against rincón, an inner one.^[15] The Academy's 1817 dictionary records an old sense “large rough stone hurled down on enemies”, and phrases such as doblar la esquina “to turn the corner”, estar de esquina “to be at odds”, las cuatro esquinas, a children's game, and rompe esquinas, a bully who lurks at street corners.^[16] Terreros has mozo de esquina “street porter”.^[17]

In Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay esquina is a grocery or country store, because it usually stood on a corner.^[18][19][20] In Chile doblar la esquina means “to die”.^[21][18] Basque borrowed the word as izkina.^[1]

Timeline

• late 13th century – the Libro del Tesoro.^[12]
• 1300–1305 – the Libro del cavallero Cifar, in a copy of the late 15th century.^[13]
• 1348 – the Ordenamiento de Alcalá de Henares.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin angulus exterior.^[14]
• 1495 – first record of esquinado.^[3]
• 1537 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[22]
• 1607 – first record of esquinazo.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias proposes a Greek origin.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy records doblar la esquina and estar de esquina.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from esquena.^[7]
• 1917 – Alemany records the Chilean doblar la esquina “to die”.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. An outer corner or edge where two sides of something meet, especially the walls of a building: Choqué contra la esquina del armario.^[2][1]
2. A street corner, where two streets meet: Te espero en la esquina.^[23]
3. (sports) A corner, as in saque de esquina.^[1]
4. (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay) A grocery or country store, usually on a corner.^[18][20]
5. (obsolete) A large stone hurled down on enemies from a height.^[2]

Word family

• esquinado
• esquinazo
• esquinal
• esquinar
• esquinero

Related words

• esquena
• French échine
• English shin

Usage notes

A la vuelta de la esquina is “just round the corner”, also of time.^[1][11] A minor homograph, esquina “china root”, a medicinal root brought from China and India, is in Terreros.^[17][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. esquina
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esquina
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. échine
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 281
6. ^ 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. 3, 678
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 463
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ 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. 799
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 618
11. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esquina
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. esquina
13. ^ 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. esquina
14. ^ 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. esquina
15. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. esquina
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 391
17. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 106
18. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 403
19. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 302
20. ^ a b Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 91
21. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 718
22. ^ 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. esquina
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. esquina
24. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. esquina