hembra

Forms

hembra f (plural hembras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote femna, fembra and fenbra; the DTME dates the modern form to 1251.^[2][3] Asturian has fembla and fema, and the Galician-like femia is used in parts of León, especially the Maragatería.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fembra, earlier femna, inherited from Latin fēmina (“woman, female”).^[5][6][7][1] Gómez de Silva compares the change of the cluster /mn/ to /mbr/ with the suffix -dumbre.^[8] Its learned doublet is fémina.^[4][1]

The Latin word survives in all the Romance languages: Portuguese fêmea, Galician femia, Asturian fema, Catalan fembra, Occitan femna, French femme and Italian femmina.^[5][9][4] In France, Catalonia and north-western Italy it came to mean “woman”, and the diminutive Latin fēmella took its place for the female animal.^[5] The Catalan word never meant “female”, only “woman”.^[10]

The Latin noun goes back to *fēmanā- and *dʰeh₁-mh₁n-h₂- (“the one nursing”), an old middle participle of the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to suck, nurse”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180), in the sense “woman”: Nacido es Dios, por uer, de fembra “God is born, truly, of a woman”.^[12][5][6] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) uses maslo e femna “male and female” of the animals of Noah's ark.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant both a female animal and a woman, as in the Alfonsine history of Spain, where the Amazons raise their daughters.^[13] Alfonso X's Lapidario used it for a female animal, and his astronomical works for the hollow piece into which a male piece fits.^[13] Covarrubias called it the correlative of macho, for all animals, while a woman also had her own name, mujer.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the more delicate plant of a species and thin, straight hair.^[15]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 gave the fruit-bearing plant of species with separate sexes, such as the palm, and the female part of hooks, buckles, screws and keys.^[16] The DCECH notes that the sense “woman” is now jocular and belongs to flamenco and gaucho styles of speech.^[5] In the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico buena hembra is an attractive woman.^[17] In the historical Spanish of the Canaries hembra meant a girl or daughter, as opposed to a son.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – fembra in the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[12][3]
• c. 1200 – femna in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[12]
• 1251 – the modern form, according to the DTME.^[3]
• 1277 – Alfonso X's astronomical works use it for the hollow piece of a joint.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin foemina for a female of any kind.^[19]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it the correlative of macho.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin femina.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female animal; also in apposition: una jirafa hembra.^[7][1]
2. A woman (mujer).^[7]
3. (botany) In plants with male and female individuals, the one that bears fruit; mostly in apposition.^[7]
4. The female part of a fastening or connection, with a hollow or hole into which another piece fits: la hembra del corchete.^[7]
5. The hollow or hole in such a piece.^[7]
6. A mould for shaping a soft material.^[7]
7. A thin horse's tail.^[7]

Adjective

1. Thin, fine, limp: pelo hembra.^[7]

Word family

• hembrilla
• hembruno
• hembraje

Related words

• femenino
• femenil
• fémina
• afeminar
• macho
• Latin fēmina
• Portuguese fêmea

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. hembra
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. hembra
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2725
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 340
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hembra
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. hembra
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 347
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3239
10. ^ 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. 3, 940
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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hembra
13. ^ a b c 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. hembra
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. 969
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 137
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 464
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. hembra
18. ^ 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. hembra
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 361
20. ^ 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. hembra
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 559