hoja

Forms

hoja f (plural hojas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote foja or foia.^[2][3] The form foja survives in the administrative language of Argentina and elsewhere in the Americas (a fojas 15).^[2][4][3] Aragonese has fuella and Asturian and Leonese fueya, with other dialect forms such as old Riojan hueja.^[2][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish foja, inherited from Latin folia (“leaves”), the plural of folium (“leaf”).^[2][4][7][1] The Latin neuter plural was first a collective, “foliage”, and was later taken as a feminine singular.^[1][8] Spanish generalised the plural early; only Old French, Old Occitan and Mozarabic kept the Latin singular in its proper sense.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese folha, Catalan fulla, French feuille, Italian foglia and Romanian foaie.^[9][1] Catalan contrasts full (“sheet of paper”) with the word for “leaf”, as does Italian foglio beside the feminine.^[2] The learned folio is the doublet of the popular word.^[1][4]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *folio-.^[10] It has long been compared with Ancient Greek φύλλον (phúllon, “leaf”), and Wiktionary gives the traditional form Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yom.^[10][1] De Vaan prefers *dʰolH-io-, from a root meaning “to sprout, blossom”, cognate with θάλλω (thállō, “to flourish”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is foja in a Mozarabic charter of 1191.^[2][4] La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) tells how the dove came back to Noah with un ramo de olyva con sus fojas verdes, “an olive branch with its green leaves”.^[11] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) punishes anyone who gathers foia, mulberry leaves, from another man's tree.^[11]

Semantic evolution

By the 13th century the word had its main transferred senses: Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for thin layers of stone, and a book of 1254 counts the foias of a treatise.^[12] Nebrija lists the leaf of a tree or plant, of a book, of parchment and of metal, hoja de Milán (beaten metal from Milan), and the blade of armour or of a sword.^[2] Covarrubias gives the phrases ser todo hoja y no tener fruto, said of great talkers, and al caer de la hoja for autumn.^[13]

The 1843 Academy dictionary adds the leaf of a door or window and a piece of farmland sown one year and left fallow the next.^[14] Hoja de lata “tinplate”, first recorded in 1680, became the single word hojalata in 1884.^[4] The DLE now also has the sense “periodical”, as in hoja parroquial.^[7]

In Mexico and Chile hoja means above all the husk of maize, which in Chile was used to roll cigarettes.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1191 – foja in a Mozarabic charter.^[2][4]
• c. 1200 – fojas of an olive branch in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses foias for leaves and for thin layers of stone.^[12]
• 1254 – the sense “leaf of a book”.^[12]
• 1495 – Nebrija records deshojar, hojoso and hojuela.^[4]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, hoja de lata in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1535 – hoja de mahíz “maize leaf” in Lima.^[17]
• c. 1600 – the first record of hojear and hojarasca.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin folium and lists proverbs.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin folia and records hojalata.^[18][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. leaf: each of the thin, flat, usually green parts of a plant joined to the stem or branches.^[7][1]
2. Leaves collectively; foliage: árboles de hoja perenne.^[7]
3. A petal.^[7][1]
4. A thin sheet of any material, such as metal, wood or paper.^[7][1]
5. A leaf of a book or notebook: Le faltan dos hojas al cuaderno.^[7][1]
6. The leaf of a door, window or screen, each of the parts that open and shut.^[7]
7. A periodical publication or news sheet.^[7]
8. A thin scale that rises on metal as it is beaten.^[7]
9. The blade of a knife, sword or tool; a sword.^[7][1]
10. Each of the thin layers of a pastry, as in puff pastry.^[7]
11. A field that is sown or grazed one year and left fallow for one or two years.^[7]

Word family

• hojarasca
• hojear
• hojoso
• hojuela
• deshojar
• hojalata
• milhojas

Related words

• folio
• Latin folium
• Portuguese folha

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists set phrases such as no tener vuelta de hoja, hoja de ruta, hoja de servicios and hoja de vida.^[1] The administrative a fojas keeps the old form of the word.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 373
3. ^ 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. hoja
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hoja
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2856
6. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. fueya
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. hoja
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. hoja
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3415
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hoja
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ 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. 985
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 390
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 589
16. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 128
17. ^ 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. foja
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 571