interno

Forms

interno (feminine interna, masculine plural internos, feminine plural internas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin internus (“inward, internal”), a learned word of the middle of the 15th century.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin adjective is formed from inter (“between, among”) with the suffix -nus.^[6][1] The preposition gave the inherited entre.^[2] The same Latin word is Italian interno, French interne and Catalan intern.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the word first in Diego de Burgos, in the middle of the 15th century, and then in Villaviciosa in 1615.^[2] The HSMS archive has it in a text of 1487.^[9] It meant “inner, interior”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 and the Diccionario de Autoridades define it simply as “interior”.^[10][11] Autoridades quotes lo interno del cuerpo “the inside of the body” from Pellicer.^[10][11] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 records the adverbial phrase de interno “inwardly” as old.^[12] Domínguez in 1846 adds the boarding pupil, the inner parts of anatomy and internal diseases, and the Academy accepted the pupil who lives in his school in 1884.^[13][14] Alemany in 1917 adds the medical students who live in the hospitals where they serve.^[15] The DLE now also has the prisoner of a penitentiary, the live-in domestic servant and the resident doctor.^[4] Moliner notes that interno is preferred to interior for what happens inside something, as in discordias internas.^[16]

Timeline

• mid-15th century – first record, in Diego de Burgos.^[2][3]
• 1487 – a record in the HSMS texts.^[9]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “interior”.^[10]
• 1697 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: en lo interno de esta gobernación.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the boarding pupil.^[14]
• 1917 – Alemany records the medical student living in a hospital.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. internal, inner, interior: las paredes internas del tubo.^[4][16][1]
2. Of a person: living in a school or hospital, as a boarder, and also used as a noun.^[4][16]
3. Of a person: held in a prison, and mostly used as a noun.^[4][1]
4. Of a domestic employee: living in the house where he or she works.^[4][16]
5. Of a medical student: assisting in a hospital department or clinic.^[4]
6. (Dominican Republic) Admitted to hospital.^[18]

Noun

1. A resident doctor.^[4]

Word family

• internar
• internado

Related words

• interior
• externo
• entre
• íntimo
• Latin internus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. s.v. entre
3. ^ a b 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 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. interno
5. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. interno
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 870
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
9. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. interno
10. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1050
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 294
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 413
13. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 1008
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. 605
15. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 961
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. interno
17. ^ 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. interno
18. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. interno