lava

Forms

lava f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian lava, from Neapolitan lave (“lava”), which continues Latin lābēs (“fall, collapse”) by popular descent.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin noun is a derivative of lābor (“to slip, fall”).^[3][6][1] From the same Latin word come Catalan allau (“avalanche”), with the article fused to it, and through Catalan the Spanish alud.^[2][7][8] The learned labe “stain” is the Latin word taken directly.^[2][9]

In Italian the word is recorded in this sense from 1663 (Magalotti), and Bottari wrote in 1733 that the people near the mountain of Somma called the burning matter by this name.^[10] The DHLE gives 1738 as the Italian date of the sense “molten magma”.^[11] Alemany (1917) and Gómez de Silva derived it instead from lavare (“to wash”).^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE's first record is a report from Naples, “Novedades de Italia: De Nápoles”, in the Madrid Mercurio Histórico y Político of 1752, in the sense of burning matter flowing from an erupting volcano.^[11] The BDELC dates the word to 1822.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first entered the Academy's dictionary in 1803.^[11] The 1817 edition defines it as the molten matter that flows from volcanoes in burning streams, and the 1884 edition adds that, cold and solid, it is used in building.^[14][15] Boyd-Bowman's first volcanic record is from Lima in 1794, where precious lavas are listed beside basalts.^[16] Later dictionaries also record lava for a heavy flood of muddy water in Aragon and for a landslide in the Canaries.^[11]

Timeline

• 1663 – Italian lava in Magalotti.^[10]
• 1752 – first Spanish record, in the Mercurio Histórico y Político.^[11]
• 1794 – volcanic lavas in a text from Lima.^[16]
• 1803 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[11]
• 1822 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del ital. lava”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. lava: the molten matter that flows from a volcano during an eruption; when cold and solid it is used in building: Un río de lava bajó hasta el pueblo.^[4][1]

Related words

• alud
• labe
• lapso
• Latin lābēs
• Catalan allau

Usage notes

A second lava, formed from lavar, is a term of mining for the washing that cleans ores of impurities; the Academy's dictionary of 1817 already gives it before the volcanic sense, and records it separately from 1884.^[17][14][15] Boyd-Bowman records it from Lima in 1791, el tiempo de la lava.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 582
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lava
4. ^ a b 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. lava
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. lava
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lābēs
7. ^ 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, 95
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4802
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3679
10. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. lava
11. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. lava
12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1014
13. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 416
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 520
15. ^ 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. 632
16. ^ 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. lava
17. ^ 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. lava²