fonil

Forms

fonil m (plural foniles)^[1] The Canary Islands also have funil, recorded beside fonil in the historical dictionary of Canarian Spanish.^[2]

Etymology

Corominas takes it from the Gascon of the Bordeaux region, borrowed from Occitan fonilh (“funnel”).^[3] That word goes back to Vulgar Latin *fundibulum, from Latin infundibulum (“funnel”).^[3][4] The Latin noun is formed from īnfundō (“to pour in”) with the suffix -bulum, and the verb from fundō (“to pour”).^[5][3]

The Academy derives it instead from Aragonese fonil (“funnel”).^[6][7] Wiktionary allows a borrowing from that word or from Portuguese funil or Galician funil.^[1] Maffiotte gives the Canarian word as Portuguese, and Alemany in 1917 derived it from the English word.^[8][9]

According to Corominas, medieval Occitan texts of the Dordogne and the Lot-et-Garonne already have fonilh and enfonilh, and the word now covers Gascony, the area where Latin /nd/ is reduced to /n/.^[3] From Bordeaux, a great wine port, it spread with the wine trade to English funnel (in the 15th century fonel), Breton founil, the Spanish and Portuguese words and several Basque forms.^[3] He does not consider it a true Gasconism, which would have /h/ for Latin /f/: around Bordeaux the /f/ was partly kept, more so in the Middle Ages.^[3] The cognates in García de Diego's article include fonill and Asturian funil.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is a notarial deed of 22 October 1555 in the Canary Islands: the equipment of a vineyard and winepress includes 2 foniles and 1 fonil pequeño de estaño “a small tin funnel”.^[2] Corominas's first record is the Instrucción náutica of García de Palacio (Mexico, 1587), which explains: fonil, es con que envasan el agua, y vino en las pipas “a fonil is what they fill the casks with water and wine with”.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the word came into Spanish as a nautical term, which Autoridades says it is, and that this explains its wider use in Galician-Portuguese, the language of a seafaring people.^[3][11] Terreros glossed it as the funnel used in the navy to fill the casks with water and wine, and Salvá in 1846 as a large wooden funnel.^[12][13] It is also general in western areas such as Sanabria, Extremadura and the Canary Islands.^[3] In the Canaries it names any funnel, and Maffiotte also records it for an unpleasant person.^[14][8] Pichardo recorded that in Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, the sailors' word had come to mean “anus”.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1555 – a deed in the Canary Islands lists foniles among the gear of a winepress.^[2]
• 1587 – García de Palacio's Instrucción náutica, printed in Mexico, defines the word.^[3][10]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives it as a nautical term for filling casks with water and wine.^[11]
• 1846 – Salvá describes it as a large wooden funnel.^[13]
• 1875 – Pichardo records the Cuban sense “anus” in Puerto Príncipe.^[15]
• 1917 – Alemany derives it from English funnel.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A funnel used to fill casks and barrels with liquids.^[6][7]
2. (Canary Islands) Any funnel, of whatever kind and size: Pásame el fonil para el aceite.^[14][1][8]
3. (Cuba, dated, vulgar) The anus.^[15][16]

Related words

• embudo
• fundir
• Portuguese funil
• English funnel

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. fonil
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 976
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2975
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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. fonil
7. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fonil
8. ^ a b c Maffiotte, Luis (1993), Los canarismos (manuscript c. 1887), ed. Lothar Siemens Hernández, Las Palmas: Instituto de Estudios Canarios, p. 693
9. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 787
10. ^ 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. fonil
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 776
12. ^ 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, 176
13. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 525
14. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. fonil
15. ^ a b c Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 150
16. ^ a b Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 229