febrero

Forms

febrero m (plural febreros)^[1] The popular form was hebrero, common in the classical writers and in Nebrija;^[2][3][1] Autoridades says that hebrero was the older form.^[2][3][1] Old Spanish texts also have ferero, feurero, freuero and feblero.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin Febrārius, in a semi-learned form.^[2][6] This is the spoken Latin form of Februārius, recorded in the Appendix Probi and in inscriptions.^[2][6][1][7] The learned influence kept the initial ⟨f⟩, where popular speech had hebrero, with the change of Latin /f/ to /h/.^[2][1][8] García de Diego finds the change in the old speech of Granada too, far from the Basque area.^[8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese fevereiro, Galician febreiro, Catalan febrer, French février, Italian febbraio and Romanian făurar.^[9][10] The Latin month name is formed from februum (“means of purification”), plural februa, the purification held in the month.^[11][1][12] In the old Roman calendar it was the last month of the year.^[13] De Vaan gives two possible origins, from PIE *dʰwes-ro- (“the smoking”) or from *dʰegʷʰ-ro- (“the burning”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a charter of 1129, and the word appears as a personal name already in 1102.^[2][6] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) names the months of December, January, February and half of March, when the owners of flocks must keep a watch.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The Libro de Alexandre personifies the month as don Febrero, warming his hands by the fire.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 derived the name from Latin februo “to purify” and said that people called the month loco “mad” for its changeable weather of rain, sun, snow and wind in a single day.^[15] Autoridades recorded the proverb Febrero cebadero, because rain in February secures the barley, and the Academy's 1884 edition the saying en febrero, busca la sombra el perro, for the sun that already warms.^[3][16] The month name passed from Spanish into the languages of the Philippines, as Tagalog Pebrero.^[1]

Timeline

• 1102 – Febrero as a personal name.^[2]
• 1129 – first record of the month name, in a charter.^[2][6]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[14]
• 1259 – febrero in the date of an Alfonsine translation.^[17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's entry is hebrero mes.^[18]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, hebrero in Tierra Firme.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls February loco.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records Febrero cebadero.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. February, the second month of the year, with 28 days, or 29 in a leap year: Nació un 29 de febrero.^[20][1]

Word family

• febrerillo

Related words

• Latin februum
• Portuguese fevereiro
• French février

Usage notes

Month names are written with a small letter in Spanish; the abbreviation is feb.^[1][20] The proverb Febrero cebadero praises a rainy February.^[3][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 877
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 731
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. febrero
5. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 254
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. febrero
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. februarius
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2721
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. februarius
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 285
11. ^ a b 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. februum
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. februarius
13. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. febrero
14. ^ 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. febrero
15. ^ 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. 836
16. ^ 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. 491
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. febrero
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, p. s.v. febrero
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. febrero
20. ^ a b 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. febrero