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guía

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word guía

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1220–1250 Gonzalo de Berceo, Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Gothic *widan
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish guiar
Spanish guía

Pronunciation

  • /ˈɡia/, [ˈɡi.a][1]

Forms

guía m or f by sense (plural guías)[1]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Spanish guiar, at first an abstract noun for the act of guiding, which only later became the name of the person who guides.[2][3] Wiktionary also calls it probably a deverbal noun of the verb.[1] Corominas rejects Meyer-Lübke's idea that the verb was formed from the noun: the noun is feminine everywhere, as are other personal nouns that began as abstracts, such as centinela and vigía.[2]

The verb is common to all the western Romance languages, and its initial consonant points to a Germanic source, but no clear etymon is known.[2][3] Corominas suggests a Gothic *widan (“to join together”), through a sense “to escort someone and guarantee his safety” that the verb had in feudal and customary law; he rejects the older derivations from a Gothic or Frankish *wītaną on grounds of sound and meaning.[2][3]

Similar deverbal nouns are Italian guida, from guidare, and Old Occitan guida, from guidar.[4][5] French guide was borrowed from one of these two in 1370 and replaced guie, a deverbal noun of the same kind.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun to Berceo, and the BDELC gives 1220–1250 for the sense “act of guiding”.[2][3] In Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos the line ca avrás buena guía “for you will have good guidance” can be read either as the abstract noun or as a person.[2]

Semantic evolution

The person who shows the way long stayed feminine: in the Golden Age la guía still meant the man who guides: in the Quijote a guide (una guía) is to lead Don Quixote to the cave of Montesinos, and in Rinconete y Cortadillo dijo la guía means “said the guide”.[2] The BDELC also notes that the personal noun was still feminine in the 17th century.[3] The Academy's dictionary of 1869 still entered the word as feminine, adding that it was also used as masculine for a person who shows the way or directs another.[6] By 1899 the person was of common gender, and a masculine military sense, the sergeant or corporal who keeps the troops aligned, had been added.[7]

Books of instructions and printed lists of data are among the senses in today's dictionary, as are a customs permit for goods, a fuse, the shoot left on a vine and each twisted end of a moustache.[8] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1532, in Mexico, for a guide who leads the way.[9] In Puerto Rico it is the steering wheel of a car, and in the Dominican Republic both the steering wheel and the yoke of oxen at the head of a team.[10][11] In the Canaries it also names the long, flexible runners of plants such as the pumpkin.[12] The word passed into Tagalog as giya.[1]

Timeline

  • 1220–1250 – Berceo uses guía in a sense close to the abstract “guidance”.[2][3]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija explains guía both as a guiding man or woman, Latin dux, and as the act of guiding.[13]
  • 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico, of a guide who led the writer up a hill.[9]
  • early 17th century – Cervantes still uses la guía for a man who shows the way.[2]
  • 1869 – the Academy's dictionary enters the word as feminine, also used as masculine for persons.[6]
  • 1899 – the Academy makes the person of common gender and adds the military guide.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (masculine or feminine) A person who leads others along the way; a guide: Un guía local nos llevó hasta el lago.[14][15][1]
  2. (masculine or feminine) A person whose job is to show visitors the sights of a city, museum or monument.[14][15]
  3. (masculine or feminine) A person who teaches and directs another; a mentor.[15][7]
  4. (masculine, military) A sergeant or corporal placed so that the troops keep their alignment.[14][7]
  5. (feminine) Anything that directs or leads.[8]
  6. (feminine) A guidebook or treatise of instructions on a subject, as in guía de viaje.[8][1]
  7. (feminine) A printed list of data on a subject; a directory.[8][1]
  8. (feminine) A permit carried with goods in transport so that they are not seized.[8][1]
  9. (feminine) A thin fuse used to fire blasting charges and fireworks.[8]
  10. (feminine) A shoot or rod left on vines and trees to train them; the leading shoot of conifers.[8]
  11. (feminine, mechanics) A part or cord that keeps another moving along a fixed path.[8]
  12. (feminine) The horse or mule that goes at the head of a team.[8][14]
  13. (feminine) Each twisted end of a moustache.[8]
  14. (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) The steering wheel of a car.[10][11]

Word family

  • audioguía
  • guianza

Usage notes

For a person the word is el guía or la guía according to sex; for the book and the other things it is feminine.[1][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 258
  3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guiar
  4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 398
  7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 509
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. guía
  9. ^ 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. guía
  10. ^ 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. guía
  11. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. guía
  12. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. guía
  13. ^ 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. guía
  14. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guía
  15. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. guía
Cite this entry

“Guía.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/gu%C3%ADa. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·