laguna

Forms

laguna f (plural lagunas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish laguna, inherited from Latin lacūna (“hollow, pit; pool”).^[2][3][4][1] A variant lagona, still used in Sanabria, is spelt lacona in a Palencia document of 938 and appears again in one from Sahagún of 1094;^[2] Fernández de Oviedo and Cervantes de Salazar also wrote alaguna.^[2]

The same word is Asturian llaguna, Catalan llacuna and Italian laguna.^[5][1] Galician lagoa and Portuguese lagoa changed the suffix, Corominas suggests because the word was felt as an augmentative of lago.^[2][6] In Venetian the word meant “marsh”, and through French lagune it is the source of the English word lagoon.^[6][7]

The Latin word belongs with lacus (“basin, pool, lake”), the source of Spanish lago.^[8][9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from a charter of 1074 in Oelschläger's list.^[2][3] The DEMel's first record in Spanish form is the Fuero de Lerma of 1148.^[10] In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen Mary says miémbrete cómo fago de lágremas laguna “remember how I make a pool of tears”.^[11] In Alfonso X's Lapidario it is a natural pool: fazen se grandes lagunas en los campos “great pools form in the fields” in winter rains.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it for natural and man-made pools, and even for the Dead Sea, the laguna que llaman muerta.^[12] The figurative sense came from Latin learning: in 1611 Covarrubias explained that hollows in surfaces that ought to be level are called lagunas, and so are the places in manuscripts where words are missing.^[13] Autoridades took this sense from Covarrubias, beside the main one of a place where water gathers.^[14]

In 1817 the Academy recorded two proverbs, no bebas en laguna ni comas más que una aceituna and salir de lagunas y entrar en mojadas, the second meaning the same as salir del lodo y caer en el arroyo “out of the frying pan into the fire”.^[15] The 1884 edition first defined it as a natural body of water, usually fresh and smaller than a lake.^[16] Today it also means a defect or break in a series, a gap in someone's knowledge and a lapse of memory.^[4][17] In Puerto Rico a laguna is a saltwater lagoon, with or without an outlet to the sea.^[18]

Timeline

• 938 – the variant lacona in a document from Palencia.^[2]
• 1074 – first record, in a charter.^[2][3]
• 1148 – laguna in the Fuero de Lerma.^[10]
• c. 1236–1246 – Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (in an 18th-century copy) speaks of a laguna of tears.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for natural pools and for the Dead Sea.^[12]
• 1495 – first record of lagunajo “puddle”.^[3]
• 1519 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico: a lagoon near the sea coast.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “gap in a manuscript”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records the proverbs with laguna.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as a natural body of water smaller than a lake.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lagoon, pond or small lake: a natural body of water, usually fresh, smaller than a lago.^[4][1]
2. In a manuscript or printed text, a lacuna: a gap where something was left out or has been lost.^[4][1]
3. A defect, gap or break in continuity in a set or series: Hay una laguna de diez años en el registro.^[4][1]
4. A gap in someone's education or knowledge.^[4][17]
5. A lapse of memory, something forgotten.^[4][17]

Word family

• lagunajo
• lagunero
• lagunoso

Related words

• lago
• lacustre
• Latin lacūna
• Italian laguna
• English lagoon

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lago
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lago
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. laguna
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3711
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. lacūna
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. laguna
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. laguna
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
12. ^ a b c 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. laguna
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. 1062
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. laguna
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 515
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. 627
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. laguna
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. laguna
19. ^ 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. laguna