libro

Forms

libro m (plural libros)^[1] Old Spanish texts also spell it lybro, liuro and liblo.^[2][3] Asturian has llibru.^[4]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin liber (“inner bark of a tree; book”), used in all periods of the language.^[4][5][6][1] Vox calls it a borrowing of the 12th century.^[7] Corominas notes that the word has a learned form in all the Romance languages.^[4] The botanical term líber, the phloem of plants, recorded by the Academy from 1884, is its doublet, from the original sense of the Latin word.^[4][5]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese livro, Galician libro, Asturian llibru, Catalan llibre, French livre and Italian libro.^[1][8][9] In Latin the word first meant the inner bark between the wood and the outer bark, on which the Romans wrote, and then the book itself.^[5][10][11] De Vaan, “for want of a better alternative”, connects it with words for bast and leaf in other Indo-European languages and reconstructs *lufro- from *lubh-ro- (“leaf, rind”), though no Latin form with ⟨u⟩ is attested.^[12] Wiktionary gives the same root, *lewbʰ- (“to peel”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the earliest texts, the Cid among them.^[4][5] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) God tells Moses to write a remembrance „en lybro”, “in a book”.^[3] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) has a chapter on reading the council's libro of accounts.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose libro means a bound volume, a written work and one of the main parts of a long work, such as the books of the Bible; the diminutive libriello also occurs.^[13] Covarrubias (1611) repeats the bark etymology and records phrases such as hacer libro nuevo “to settle old accounts” and haber estudiado en el libro de su aldea “to know only what one was taught at home”.^[14] The Academy's editions of 1817 and 1843 add an old sense “distaff for spinning wool” and the figurative sense “tax, levy” (no he pagado los libros).^[15][16] The 1884 edition adds “libretto”.^[17] Alemany (1917) records the zoological sense, the third stomach of ruminants, which the DLE keeps.^[18][6]

In New Mexican Spanish libro also means a school grade.^[19] The word passed into Tagalog, Cebuano, Quechua (liwru) and other languages of the former Spanish empire.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the earliest texts, the Cid among them, have the word.^[4][5]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy) writes lybro.^[3]
• c. 1230–1250 – Berceo uses the diminutive librillo.^[4]
• c. 1400 – first record of libelo, the learned diminutive.^[5]
• 1490 – first record of librero, and librería follows in 1495.^[5]
• 1512 – first record in the Americas: books of medicine and surgery in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it from Latin liber “bark of a tree”.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy records libreta “notebook” and the sense “tax”.^[5][15]
• 1884 – the Academy first records líber and libreto.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. book: a set of many sheets of paper or similar material bound together into a volume.^[6][1]
2. A scientific, literary or other work long enough to form a volume, in print or another format.^[6][21]
3. Each of the main parts into which some long works, codes and laws are divided: el libro tercero del código.^[6]
4. libreto, the text of an opera or other musical stage work.^[6]
5. (dated) A tax or levy.^[6][16]
6. (law, Spain) A non-periodical publication of 49 pages or more.^[6]
7. (zoology) The omasum, the third of the four stomachs of ruminants.^[6][21]

Word family

• librero
• librería
• libresco
• libreta
• libraco
• librillo
• librote

Related words

• libelo
• libreto
• líber
• Latin liber
• Portuguese livro

Usage notes

Phrases include libro de caja “cash book”, libro de caballerías “romance of chivalry” and libro blanco “white paper”.^[22][21] Libro is also the first person singular present of librar “to free”, a different word.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. libro
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. libro
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 643
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. libro
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. libro
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. libro
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2055
9. ^ 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, 202
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. libro
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. libro
14. ^ 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. 1085
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 528
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 438
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 643
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1030
19. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 118
20. ^ 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. libro
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. libro
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 466
23. ^ 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. librar