interior

Forms

interior m or f (masculine and feminine plural interiores)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin interior (“inner, further in”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] In Latin it is a comparative formed from inter (“between, among”), though with the sense of a positive;^[5] Gómez de Silva derives it from an unattested Old Latin *interus (“inner”).^[5][6][7] The same preposition gave the inherited entre.^[2][6]

De Vaan reconstructs the Latin family as Proto-Italic *n̥ter (“between”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér (“between”) and its derivative *h₁énteros (“situated within”); intimus (“inmost”) belongs to the same set.^[8][1] Wiktionary compares Ancient Greek ἔντερον (énteron, “intestine”) and Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “interior”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's earliest record is the plural interiores in the Castilian version of Seneca's De ira (1284–1295).^[9] The earliest CDH hit, in Pedro de Cuéllar's Catecismo of 1325 (in a copy of 1472), speaks of folgura interior, “inner rest” from evil thoughts.^[10] A Tratado de la Comunidad of about 1370 contrasts las esteriores and las interiores, outward and inward things, and Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396) speaks of the partes interiores of the body.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Corominas dates the word from Juan de Mena and Santa Teresa (about 1570), the BDELC from 1438;^[11] DICCA-XV records it from 1417.^[2][3][12] Early uses are both physical (the inner parts of the body, the inside of a thing) and moral (inner joy, enemies within: Sánchez de Vercial calls the appetites of the flesh enemigos interiores).^[10] In 1548 Fernández de Oviedo used las interiores for the entrails.^[13] Autoridades in 1734 gave the physical sense, the moral sense “secret, hidden” and the noun for the hidden thing.^[14]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary added a room or flat with no view of the street, the middle compartment of a three-part coach, the soul and, in the plural, the entrails.^[11] Later senses are the domestic as opposed to the foreign (política interior), the inland part of a country, and in film the scenes shot indoors.^[4][15] In the Americas the word names underwear (the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) and the provinces as against the capital (Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Panama, Cuba).^[16][4]

Timeline

• 1284–1295 – the plural interiores in the Castilian Seneca De ira.^[9]
• 1325 – Pedro de Cuéllar's Catecismo (in a copy of 1472) has folgura interior.^[10]
• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia writes of the partes interiores of the body.^[10]
• 1438 – the BDELC's first date.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary explains Latin interior as a comparative.^[12]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, Oviedo's las interiores “entrails”.^[13]
• c. 1570 – Santa Teresa uses it, as Corominas notes.^[2]
• 1734 – Autoridades gives the physical and moral senses.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the room without a street view and the middle compartment of a coach.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. inner, interior: on the inside: el bolsillo interior de la chaqueta.^[4][1]
2. Lying deep inside.^[4]
3. Felt only in the soul; spiritual: vida interior.^[4][17]
4. Of a room or flat: with no view of the street.^[4][17]
5. domestic, of one's own country as opposed to foreign: comercio interior.^[4]

Noun

1. The inside of something: el interior del edificio.^[4][17]
2. The soul, as the source of human activity.^[4]
3. The inland part of a country, away from the coast or borders; in parts of the Americas, the provinces as against the capital.^[4][16]
4. (in the plural) The entrails (entrañas).^[4]
5. (film, in the plural) Scenes shot indoors, or the sets that represent indoor spaces.^[4]
6. (Ecuador, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Colombia) Underpants, also in the plural with the same meaning.^[4][16][1]

Word family

• interiormente
• interioridad
• interiorizar

Related words

• interno
• entre
• íntimo
• exterior
• Latin interior

Usage notes

Interior has one form for masculine and feminine: un patio interior, una cocina interior.^[1][14] Set phrases include ropa interior “underwear” and producto interior bruto “gross domestic product”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 645
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. entre
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. interior
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. interior
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. interior
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. interior
10. ^ 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. interior
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 604
12. ^ a b 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. interior
13. ^ 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. interior
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 292
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. interior
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. interior
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. interior