hebilla

Forms

hebilla f (plural hebillas)^[1] Old Spanish fiviella (also written fiuiella) is common in the 13th century;^[2] feviella occurs in the Aranceles of the same century, fevilla in Alonso de Palencia, and hevilla in Juan Ruiz and Nebrija.^[3] Autoridades records the older form febilla as still used in Galicia.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fiviella, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fībella, a diminutive of Latin fībula (“clasp, buckle, pin”).^[3][4][5][1] The learned fíbula comes from the same Latin noun.^[4] Wiktionary suggests that the /e/ of the Spanish form arose from /i/ by dissimilation.^[1]

The same diminutive gave Portuguese fivela, Galician fibela, Old Occitan fivela and Catalan sivella, while Italian fibbia continues the Latin noun itself.^[6][7][3][8] Corominas also derives from it forms with an initial sibilant: Asturian cibiella “twisted withy used as a tie”, Galician cibela “collar of flexible wood for the ox” and the Catalan word.^[3][9] Because Sardinian has tibbia “buckle” with a sound that cannot come from Latin /k/, he rejects crossings with subula (“awl”), with cingō (“to gird”) and with cippus (“stake”), and explains the forms by a dissimilation of the two labial fricatives.^[3] The REW instead attributes the Asturian form to the influence of cepo.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed from the root of fīgō (“to fasten, fix”) (archaic fīvō) with the instrumental suffix -bula.^[10][1] De Vaan traces the verb to a Proto-Indo-European present of the root that Wiktionary writes Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a 15th-century copy), describing a richly worked piece: más valié la fiviella que toda Lombardía “the buckle was worth more than all Lombardy”.^[12] The first record in an original text is the ordinance of the Cortes of Valladolid of 1258, which forbade çapatos a cuerda nin de fiuiella “shoes with laces or buckles”.^[12][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Primera Partida forbids clerics belts with gilded buckles, and the General estoria uses the word for the pin with which a servant's ear was pierced.^[12][13] Covarrubias defined it as the iron that holds the strap and explained the phrase no le falta hebilla, said of something perfectly finished, as taken from armour whose pieces were fastened with buckles.^[14] The Academy marked that phrase as old in 1843, but by 1884 gave it again as a familiar expression.^[15][16]

In Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina the word also means a hair clip, and in El Salvador it names a shrub used in folk medicine.^[17]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has fiviella, in a 15th-century copy.^[12]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida speaks of fiuiellas doradas.^[12]
• 1258 – the Cortes of Valladolid, the first record in an original text.^[3][4]
• 1335 – the form with ⟨h⟩, hevilla, in Juan Ruiz.^[4][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives hevilla o hevillera as Latin fibula.^[18]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico, in the form sevillas.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the phrase no le falta hebilla.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades describes its shape and notes the old form febilla.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, Latin fibula.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A buckle: a piece of metal or other material, usually with one or more hinged prongs, that holds a strap or ribbon passed through it: Ajustó la hebilla de la mochila.^[5][1]
2. (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina) A hair clip.^[17]
3. (El Salvador) A shrub (Senna occidentalis) with yellow flowers and flat pods, whose root and seeds are used in folk medicine for stomach complaints.^[17]

Word family

• hebillero
• hebilleta

Related words

• fíbula
• Latin fībula
• Portuguese fivela

Usage notes

No faltar hebilla is said of a person who has everything needed for a task, or of a thing that is perfect.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 133
3. ^ 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. 3, 335
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hebilla
5. ^ 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. hebilla
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fībella
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fībula
8. ^ 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. 7, 961
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. cibiella
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hebilla
13. ^ 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. hebilla
14. ^ 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. 974
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 382
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. 557
17. ^ 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. hebilla
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. hebilla
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. hebilla