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lechuga

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word lechuga

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1250 Poridat de las poridades More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin lactuca via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin lac
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin lac
Latin lactūca
Spanish lechuga
From the same root
Latin lacteō ← lac
Latin lacteus ← lac

Pronunciation

  • /leˈt͡ʃuɡa/, [leˈt͡ʃu.ɣ̞a][1]

Forms

lechuga f (plural lechugas)[1] Old Spanish wrote lechuga from the first texts, with the plural lechugas.[2][3] Asturian has lleituga and the Mozarabic of al-Andalus had letuca.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lechuga, inherited from Latin lactūca (“lettuce”).[5][6][7][1] Corominas notes that the Latin word survives in all the Romance languages except Rhaeto-Romance.[5]

The same word is Asturian lleituga, Portuguese leituga, Galician leituga, Catalan lletuga, Mozarabic letuca, Occitan lachuga, French laitue, Italian lattuga and Romanian lăptucă.[4][8][1] In Portuguese the word now names another plant, the species Tolpis barbata.[9]

The Latin word is formed from lac (“milk”), with the ending of plant names such as ērūca.[10][1] The plant was named for the milky juice that runs from its cut stems.[1][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Poridat de las poridades, of about 1250, names lettuces among foods such as chickens, partridges, soft eggs, sow-thistles and goat's milk.[3] Alfonso X's General estoria (1272–1275) has lechugas agrestes and lechugas monteses, wild lettuces eaten with the sacrifice of a feast and with unleavened bread.[13]

Semantic evolution

Corominas dates the word only to about 1400, in the glossaries of the Escorial, but the CDH has records from the 13th century.[5][6][14] Nebrija gave it the Latin lactuca and artilis.[15] In 1611 Covarrubias repeated the old belief that lettuce cools the body and dulls desire, which made it a symbol of continence.[16]

From the 16th century lechuguilla, and also lechuga, named the pleated ruff and cuffs whose folds looked like lettuce leaves.[5][17][7] Colloquially como una lechuga means “fresh, healthy-looking”, and más fresco que una lechuga is said of a shameless or carefree person.[18]

In Puerto Rico the green colour of the banknote made lechuga a slang name for the US dollar, and in the Dominican Republic it is a name for marijuana.[19][20][21] In Spain it was slang for the thousand-peseta note.[22]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – the Poridat de las poridades lists lechugas among foods.[3]
  • 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria has lechugas agrestes and lechugas monteses, wild lettuce.[13]
  • c. 1400 – the Escorial glossaries, the first record in Corominas.[5][6]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin lactuca.[15]
  • 1512 – the first record in the Americas, among seeds listed in Puerto Rico.[23]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias calls it a common and much-used vegetable.[16]
  • 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes a wild and a garden lettuce.[24]
  • 1817 – the Academy's dictionary lists the pleated ruff as a sense of lechuga.[17]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology Del lat. lactuca.[25]

Meanings

Noun

  1. lettuce: a herbaceous plant of the daisy family with large, soft leaves, grown in gardens and eaten in salads: Compré dos lechugas para la cena.[7][1]
  2. (rare) A pleated ruff or cuff, the same as lechuguilla.[7]
  3. (rare) Each of the folds made in cloth to look like lettuce leaves.[7]
  4. (Puerto Rico, slang) A US dollar note.[19][20]
  5. (Dominican Republic, slang) Marijuana.[21][26]

Word family

  • lechuguilla
  • lechuguino
  • alechugar

Usage notes

¡Lechuga! is also an informal interjection of anger or annoyance, a euphemism for ¡leche!.[1] Set phrases include lechuga romana, a cultivated variety, and lechuga silvestre, wild lettuce.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lechuga
  3. ^ 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. lechuga
  4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lactuca
  5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 615
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lechuga
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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. lechuga
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. leituga
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 417
  12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. lechuga
  13. ^ a b 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. lechuga
  14. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. lechuga
  15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 370
  16. ^ 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. 1072
  17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 522
  18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lechuga
  19. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 232
  20. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. lechuga
  21. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lechuga
  22. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. lechuga
  23. ^ 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. lechuga
  24. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 376
  25. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 634
  26. ^ 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. lechuga

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lechuga.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/lechuga. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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