estero

Forms

estero m (plural esteros)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a tidal inlet or marsh is inherited from Latin aestuārium (“tidal inlet, marsh covered at high tide”).^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is formed from aestus (“heat; surge of the sea”) with the place suffix -ārium.^[4][1][5] The learned estuario, first recorded in 1708, is a doublet.^[2][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese esteiro, Galician esteiro and French étier, a channel near the sea.^[7][8][9] From the French word comes étiage, which Spanish borrowed as estiaje “lowest water level”.^[2][8] Segura Munguía adds that estela “wake of a ship” may come from the Portuguese esteira, from the Latin neuter plural.^[10]

The Latin noun belongs with aestās (“summer”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eidh-tu- (“burning, heat”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A boundary charter of 1267 between Huelva and Niebla follows the Río Tinto fasta o sale el estero que dizen Cabrera, “to where the inlet called Cabrera leaves it”.^[12] Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284) describes land cut through by esteros que salien de la mar, creeks running far inland from the sea.^[13] Corominas dates the word only to Nebrija, who glosses estero de mar as Latin aestuarium.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades equated estero with albufera, a coastal lagoon, and the Academy's 1843 edition defined it as a branch of a river that rises and falls with the tide.^[15][16]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1515 on, and it took on new meanings there.^[17][18] In the Río de la Plata region it names low, swampy ground covered in water plants, in Chile and Ecuador a stream, in Venezuela and Colombia a pool left by rain and floods.^[19][20][21] The DLE now gives “estuary” first, then the swampy lowland, the Chilean “brook” and the Colombian and Venezuelan “pond”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1267 – estero in a boundary charter between Huelva and Niebla.^[12]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses the plural for tidal creeks.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: estero de mar, the date Corominas gives.^[2][14]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1554 – López de Gómara speaks of an estero o laguna teeming with fish.^[22]
• 1708 – first record of the learned doublet estuario.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin aestuarium.^[23]
• 1917 – Alemany records the American senses.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. An estuary or tidal inlet.^[3][1]
2. Low, marshy ground that fills with rainwater or with water seeping from a nearby river or lake, and is full of water plants.^[3][24]
3. (Chile) A brook or stream.^[3][21]
4. (Colombia, Venezuela) A pond or pool.^[3][21]

Related words

• estuario
• estío
• Latin aestuārium
• Portuguese esteiro

Usage notes

A separate estero, derived from esterar “to cover with matting”, means the laying of mats on floors and the season when it is done; the DLE lists it as estero¹.^[3][5] In Venezuela estar en el estero means to be in trouble.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estero
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. estero
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. estero
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 285
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 250
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 238
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1444
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 25
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. estero
13. ^ 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. estero
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 351
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 325
17. ^ a b 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. estero
18. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 246
19. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 726
20. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 404
21. ^ 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. estero
22. ^ Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database)
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 468
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estero