heno

Forms

heno m (plural henos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote feno, a spelling still found in Juan Ruiz and Alfonso de Palencia.^[2] Feno survives in Santander, Salamanca and Aragonese.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish feno, inherited from Latin fēnum (“hay”).^[2][4][5][1] Nebrija, who otherwise prefers the spelling with ⟨h⟩, writes the word with ⟨f⟩ in two articles, perhaps, Corominas thinks, as an Andalusian Mozarabism.^[2]

The same Latin word is Asturian fenu, Aragonese feno, Catalan fe, Occitan fen, French foin, Italian fieno and Romanian fân.^[6][3][1] Catalan now uses fenc, a dialect form of Olot and Girona that was preferred because it is not confused with the Catalan word for faith.^[7] The Latin diminutive faeniculum (“fennel”) gave Spanish hinojo.^[8]

Latin also wrote the word with ⟨ae⟩, as faenum;^[9] Corominas follows the Latinists who take the spelling with ⟨ē⟩ as the old and correct form, which the Romance languages require.^[2] De Vaan sets out both views: if ⟨ae⟩ is the oldest spelling, as an inscription of 117 BC suggests, the etymology is unknown.^[9] If it is a hypercorrect spelling, the word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-no- (“yield”), from the root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle”), which would then also have meant “to bring forth”.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora has the earliest record, in the spelling feno: sobre lecho de feno “on a bed of hay”.^[2][10] Alfonso X's laws speak of the meadows en que siegan el feno “where they mow the hay”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defines heno first as a grass of meadows and pastures and only “by extension” as the dried grass given to cattle.^[12] The Academy's editions from 1817 to 1884 give only the fodder.^[13][14] In 1899 it restored the grass as the first sense and added heno blanco, a cultivated meadow grass.^[15]

In Mexico heno names Spanish moss and other bromeliads that hang from trees, and the long kind is used to decorate Christmas cribs.^[16][5] The phrase tener heno en el cuerno “to be quick to anger” goes back to Latin faenum habet in cornu, from the bundle of hay tied to the horns of a dangerous ox.^[8][5]

Timeline

• 1074 – the derivative fenar appears in a charter.^[2][4]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, Loores de Nuestra Señora: lecho de feno.^[2][4]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's laws: prados … en que siegan el feno.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary has hoce para feno and segador de feno.^[17]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Santa Marta: beds made of hay.^[18]
• 1555 – Laguna uses fenogreco, from Latin fenum graecum.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the derivative henil “hayloft”.^[2][4]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the proverb De paja o de heno, el pancho lleno.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin foenum.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy defines the grass plant and heno blanco.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A grass with thin stems about 20 cm long, narrow pointed leaves and a few awned flowers in an open panicle.^[5]
2. Hay: grass cut and dried as fodder for livestock: Guardaron el heno en el pajar.^[5][1]
3. (Mexico) Spanish moss and similar bromeliads.^[5][19][16]

Word family

• henar
• henil
• henal
• henificar

Related words

• hinojo
• Latin fenum
• English fennel

Usage notes

Fiebre del heno is hay fever.^[20][21] Tener alguien el heno en el cuerno means to be irascible or quick to avenge a slight.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 342
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. heno
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. heno
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3247
7. ^ 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, 948
8. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 287
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 250
11. ^ a b 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. heno
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 139
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 464
14. ^ 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. 560
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 521
16. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 593
17. ^ 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. heno
18. ^ 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. feno
19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. heno
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. heno
21. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses