invierno

Forms

invierno m (plural inviernos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote ivierno or yuierno, and ynuierno from the 13th century;^[2][3][4] Old Leonese has vierno.^[2][3][4] Ivierno is still popular in Andalusia, New Mexico, highland Ecuador and Chile, and in Aragonese and Salamancan speech.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ivierno, inherited from Late Latin hībernum (“winter”), short for tempus (“time, season”) hībernus (“wintry”).^[3][5][6] The DCECH's first record of the nasalised form, which replaced the older one, is in Juan Ruiz, but the CDH has ynuierno in texts of about 1250.^[3][5][7] Wiktionary explains the added nasal as a reanalysis of the word as the prefix in- with a second part vernus (“of spring”), as in Italian, and Gómez de Silva suggests a popular form invernu read in this way.^[1][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese inverno, Italian inverno and French hiver.^[9][10] Portuguese and Galician also have iverno, and Ribagorzan has Aragonese ivert.^[4]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *heimrinos, and is formed like Ancient Greek χειμερινός (kheimerinós, “wintry”).^[1] De Vaan derives it with hiems (“winter, storm”) from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéyōm (“winter”), the source also of Celtic and Hittite words for “winter”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has the older form ivierno, which Berceo and the Libro de Apolonio also use.^[3][5] The spelling with n appears in the 13th century, as ynuierno in the Moamín (1250) and the Poridat de poridades (c. 1250), which speaks of people roofing their houses and laying in firewood before winter comes.^[7] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses yuierno for the cold season.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 explained the word as in + Latin ver “spring”, the season opposite to summer.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades kept that spelling but noted that others wrote hybierno after Latin hybernus or imbierno after imber “rain”, and defined winter from the solstice to the equinox.^[14]

In the tropics the Spaniards called the rainy season invierno: in 1539 Oviedo wrote that in New Granada his countrymen called “winter” only the time of the rains.^[15] The Academy recorded this sense for the equatorial zone in 1884, and DAMER lists it from Guatemala to Peru.^[16][17] In Venezuela and Panama the word also means a sudden heavy shower.^[6][17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – ivierno in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[3][5]
• 1250 – ynuierno in the Moamín, a book on hunting birds (in a later 13th-century copy).^[7]
• 1330 – the derivative invernizo is recorded.^[5]
• 1335 – invierno in Juan Ruiz, the BDELC's date for the modern form.^[5][3]
• 1493 – first record in the Indies.^[15]
• 1539 – Oviedo notes that in New Granada invierno means the rainy season.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from in and Latin ver.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the equatorial sense “rainy season”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. winter: the season between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.^[6][1]
2. The coldest time of the year, December to February in the northern hemisphere and June to August in the southern.^[6]
3. In the equatorial zone, the rainy season, which lasts about six months: En Costa Rica el invierno empieza en mayo.^[6][17]
4. (Venezuela, Panama, colloquial) A sudden heavy shower (aguacero).^[6][17]

Word family

• invernar
• invernada
• invernadero
• invernal
• invernizo

Related words

• invernáculo
• hibernal
• hibernar
• Latin hibernus

Usage notes

Invierno nuclear is the hypothetical climate catastrophe after a nuclear war.^[6] The derivatives keep the Latin vowel: invernar, invernal, invernadero, and learned hibernal.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. invierno
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 461
4. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. hibernus
5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. invierno
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. invierno
7. ^ 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. invierno
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 393
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. hibernus
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1925
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. ^ 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. invierno
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. 1, 1051
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 304
15. ^ a b c 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. hibierno
16. ^ 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. 607
17. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. invierno