labio

Forms

labio m (plural labios)^[1] Old Spanish labro had the variants lambro, influenced by lamer “to lick”, and later labrio, which shows the influence of labio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin labium (“lip”), taken in the 16th century to replace Old Spanish labro, which was inherited from labrum.^[2][3][4][1] In Latin that form was the more classical one, but the borrowed form was usual in early Latin and again in late and Medieval Latin.^[2][5] Corominas concludes that the word was a Renaissance Latinism that replaced the popular names of the lip, the old word and bezo and morro, which were coming to sound coarse.^[2]

He also considers Catalan llavi, recorded from the late 14th century, a learned word.^[2][6] Portuguese lábio is the same word, but beiço remains more usual there.^[7][2] The inherited Latin word gave Italian labbro, and its plural labra, taken as a feminine, gave French lèvre.^[8][9]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *labjo- and *labro-, and compares Old English lippa (“lip”), from Proto-Germanic *lepjan-; such nominal cognates are found only in Germanic, and he doubts the derivation from a verb for “to hang loosely”.^[10] Wiktionary gives that root as *leb- and calls its PIE age doubtful.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates labio to 1570, in C. de las Casas.^[2][3] Autoridades quotes an example from Valverde of 1556 that Corominas thought needed checking.^[2] The older labro appears from about 1200, as in the Razón de amor (in a copy of 1250–1260): labros uermeios, non muy delgados “red lips, not very thin”.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

Labio is in Herrera in 1581 and is the only form in Covarrubias, the Quijote, Góngora and Ruiz de Alarcón.^[2] Labrio lasted until the late 16th century, in Santa Teresa and Barahona de Soto, and still appears as a variant in Oudin and Minsheu.^[2] Early American texts still have labrios (Mexico, 1532), beside labio bajo (Paraguay, 1544).^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades extends the word by analogy to the edge of a wound or a vessel, and records morderse los labios “to bite one's lips”, for showing vexation.^[13] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 adds the use for the organ of speech, in the singular or the plural.^[14] The DLE also has the labio leporino “cleft lip” and the labio vaginal.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – labros in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[11]
• 1220–1250 – labro in Berceo.^[3][2]
• c. 1470 – labia “persuasive talk”, from the Latin plural.^[3]
• 1570 – first record of labio, in C. de las Casas.^[2][3]
• 1586 – labrio still in Barahona de Soto.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias has only labio.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “organ of speech”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) A lip, each of the fleshy, movable outer edges of the mouth.^[4][1]
2. The edge or rim of certain things, such as a wound, a cup or the calyx of a flower.^[4][16]
3. (often in the plural) The voice, speech: De sus labios no salió una queja.^[4][16]
4. (anatomy) Each of the folds of the vulva, the labium.^[4][1]

Word family

• labiado
• labial
• pintalabios

Related words

• labia
• Latin labrum
• Catalan llavi
• Portuguese lábio

Usage notes

Labio leporino is a cleft upper lip.^[4][16] Morderse los labios is to hold back speech or laughter.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 544
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. labio
4. ^ 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. labio
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. labio
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 106
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. labrum
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. lèvre
10. ^ 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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. labio
12. ^ 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. labio
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 342
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 583
15. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1058
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. labio