higuera

Forms

higuera f (plural higueras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote figuera; the earliest record has fikera.^[2][3] Old Spanish also had a feminine figar “fig tree”, still used in Colunga in Asturias.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish figuera, inherited from Latin fīcāria according to the DLE and Wiktionary, a derivative of fīcus (“fig tree; fig”).^[4][1][5] The REW gives the Latin word only the sense “fig plantation”, and considers the Romance names of the tree probably new formations.^[6] Corominas treats it as a derivative of the Romance word for the fig, higo, shared with Portuguese figueira, Catalan figuera and Occitan figuiera.^[2][7] The Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 also derived it from the word for the fig.^[8][9] The Galician form is figueira.^[10]

De Vaan and the OLD take the Latin word for the fig as a loanword from another Mediterranean language, related to Ancient Greek σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”).^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the form fikera in a charter of 1070.^[2][7] The CDH's earliest hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in the biblical image of peace: Sera cascuno so su vid e so su figuera “each shall be under his vine and under his fig tree”.^[3] Berceo's Milagros list milgranos e figueras, peros e mazanedas “pomegranates and fig trees, pear and apple trees”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the fig tree.^[4][13] Nebrija gave it as ficus, and his Latin dictionary has higuera loca and higuera breval.^[14][15] The Diccionario de Autoridades said it was formed from higo and was once figuera, and named other plants after it: the higuera de tuna or de la India, the prickly pear, and the higuera infernal, the castor-oil plant.^[16] The DLE still calls the prickly pear higuera chumba in Spain.^[4] In Honduras and Nicaragua the word also names the amate tree.^[17]

Timeline

• 1070 – a charter has fikera.^[2][7]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has figuera (in a 13th-century copy).^[3]
• 1210 – the related feminine figar “fig tree” in a charter.^[2]
• 1246–1252 – Berceo's Milagros has figueras.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario mentions fig leaves, foias de figuera.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has higuera, and higueral “fig orchard” is first recorded.^[14][7]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Oviedo at Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives it from higo.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fig tree (Ficus carica), a tree of the mulberry family of middle height with a greyish trunk and large, rough, lobed leaves, whose fruits are the breva and the higo.^[4][1][19]
2. (Honduras, Nicaragua) The amate tree.^[17]

Word family

• higueral
• higuerilla
• higuerón
• higuereta

Related words

• higo
• breva
• cabrahígo
• Latin fīcus
• Portuguese figueira

Usage notes

Higuera chumba, higuera de Indias and higuera de pala are names of the prickly pear, nopal.^[4] The older higüera or hibuera for a gourd vessel, recorded in Oviedo in 1548 and dated 1526 by Corominas, has a separate source in an Arawakan language of the Antilles; its modern form is güira.^[20][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 358
3. ^ 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. higuera
4. ^ a b c d e 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. higuera
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 257
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ficaria
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. higo
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 566
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 527
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ficaria
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ 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. higuera
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 362
15. ^ 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. higuera
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 155
17. ^ 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. higuera
18. ^ 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. higuera
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. higuera
20. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. güira