hombro

Forms

hombro m (plural hombros)^[1] Old Spanish wrote ombro, without ⟨h⟩.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ombro, inherited from Latin umerus (“shoulder”).^[2][4][5][1] The Latin spelling humerus is late and incorrect.^[2][6] Gómez de Silva puts its ⟨h⟩ down to hypercorrection.^[7] The learned doublet is húmero, recorded from the second half of the 19th century.^[4]

The Latin word survives as a popular word in Portuguese ombro, Romanian umăr, in Gascon and in dialects of Corsica and Sardinia; it is also Italian omero.^[2][8] Most other Romance languages replaced it with descendants of spatula, and in Galician hombreiro has replaced it.^[2]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *omes-o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂om-es- (“shoulder”), with the cognates Ancient Greek ὦμος (ômos), Sanskrit अंस (áṃsa) and Gothic 𐌰𐌼𐍃 (ams).^[9][1] Wiktionary gives the PIE word as *h₃émsos.^[1] The Greek word is the source of the learned omóplato “shoulder blade”.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word after an ill omen on entering Burgos: Meció mio Cid los ombros e engrameó la tiesta “My Cid shrugged his shoulders and shook his head”.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's astronomical works also use the word for the shoulder of a bird, and his General Estoria has abaxad el uuestro ombro “lower your shoulder”, that is, humble yourselves.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 records llevar en hombros, the triumph in which students carried a newly appointed professor on their shoulders, arrimar el hombro “to help”, and ir hombro con hombro “to go side by side as equals”.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 lists encogerse de hombros “to shrug” and mirar sobre el hombro “to look down on”.^[13] In 1884 it gave the etymology as “de húmero”.^[14] Alemany in 1917 adds the printing sense, the part of a type below the face.^[15]

In Honduras and Panama the word is the shoulder of a road.^[16][1] Andalusia and Mexico say meter el hombro and Argentina poner el hombro for arrimar el hombro.^[17][18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – ombros in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[10][2][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for a star in a constellation's shoulder.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses ombro de ombre with Latin humerus.^[20]
• 1535 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records llevar en hombros and arrimar el hombro.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from húmero.^[14]
• 1917 – Alemany records the printing sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The shoulder, the upper side part of the trunk where the arm joins it.^[5][1]
2. The part of a garment that covers the shoulder: La chaqueta le queda ancha de hombros.^[5][22]
3. (printing) The part of a type between the end of the shank and the base of the face.^[5]
4. (theatre) Each of the two side spaces of the stage, beside the scene, which the audience cannot see; the wings.^[5]
5. (Honduras, Panama) The hard shoulder of a road.^[16][1]

Word family

• hombrera
• hombrillo

Related words

• húmero
• omóplato
• Latin umerus
• Portuguese ombro

Usage notes

Common phrases are a hombros “on someone's shoulders”, often in triumph, al hombro “over the shoulder”, arrimar el hombro “to lend a hand” and encogerse de hombros “to shrug”.^[5][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 380
3. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 255
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hombro
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. hombro
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. umerus
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4232
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hombro
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. hombro
12. ^ 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. 988
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 392
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. 573
15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 910
16. ^ 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. hombro
17. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 323
18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 597
19. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 242
20. ^ 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. hombro
21. ^ 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. hombro
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hombro